Oat, cranberry and white chocolate cookies

I've made these a couple of times now, including once for s to take to school for his 6th birthday (with Pokemon sugar papers and icing on top). They were easy and good.

To make approx. 25 smallish cookies:

76 g / 2.68 oz butter

60 g / 2.1 oz brown sugar

1 large egg

67 g / 2.36 oz oats

90 g / 3.17 oz flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

3 oz cranberries

56 g / 2 oz white choc chunks

Heat the oven to 190C / 375F.

Beat the butter and sugar til light and fluffy. Add the egg, mix well. Mix the oats, flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt in separate bowl, then add in a few goes, mixing well each time. Stir in the cranberries and chocolate chunks. Put rounded teaspoonfuls on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 10-12 min til golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

White chocolate, cranberry and macadamia cookies

I was given some of those nice hot chocolate sticks, the ones with a big lump of chocolate on the end of a little wooden skewer. But I am a bit of a chocolate purist, and only really fancied drinking mugs of the darkest stuff. So ended up with 2 lumps of white chocolate on sticks, that I was never going to use for making hot chocolate. I was reflecting on how I do like white chocolate but only in certain situations, e.g. cookies, and then realized there was nothing stopping me from chopping the chocolate off the sticks and using it to make cookies! Other situations that I like white chocolate in are with cranberries and with macadamias, and weirdly I'd just also been given a packet of dried cranberries, and had spontaneously purchased a little packet of salted macadamias. This recipe sounded totally perfect, so I followed it - although I only made a quarter of the amount, because I needed to scale it to the amount of white chocolate I had. It made about 20 cookies, one whole baking tray, which seemed like about right for us tbh. The full amount would have been way too much - they're pretty full-on (although delicious).

(quantities for 20 cookies)

3/4 cups plain flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 cup (56.7 g / 2 oz) butter, room temperature
1/4 cup packed golden-brown sugar
3/16 cup white sugar
1/2 a large egg (used 1/2 tbsp ground flax seed mixed with 1 tbsp boiling water)
1/4 tbsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 oz dried cranberries
2 oz white chocolate, roughly chopped
1/4 cup (1 oz) coarsely chopped roasted salted macadamia nuts

Heat oven to 177C / 350F. Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Mix flour and bicarb in a medium bowl with a fork. Beat butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Add both sugars and beat until blended. Beat in egg, then vanilla. Add dry ingredients and mix just until blended, stirring in cranberries, white chocolate chips, and nuts in the final strokes.

Space approx. tbsp sized flattened balls on baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart.

Bake until just golden, about 15 min. Cool on sheets.

Tahini chocolate cookies

I came across this recipe and it marries two of my favourite things (dark chocolate and tahini), and everything I’ve ever baked with tahini I have loved, but there hasn’t been nearly enough, and so clearly I had to make it. Then I looked at the cookbook it came from and realised it is some kind of cancer diet cookbook... I am not sure how I feel about diet advice for cancer, mostly I try and trust my body to tell me what it needs. But sometimes it is nice to think there is something within your control, like the food you eat every day, that can make a difference. Anyway, I haven’t done anything drastic with diet, although I have found it comforting to cook and to try and make appetising, varied food for my wee family, even when I didn’t feel much like eating. Weirdly, my appetite during chemo was often similar to when I was pregnant, so I had some practice already of figuring out what to eat when I don’t feel like eating. Also, I am a consummate snacker / grazer, which I think has helped stave off nausea in both situations.

Anyway, back to the topic: tahini! dark chocolate! As I made these I was reminded of happy gluten-free baking adventures in Boston, making gluten-free vegan treats for A, H and me. These cookies are fundamentally really similar to the sunflower butter gf cookies I used to make - I have no idea why I didn’t think of replacing the sunflower butter with tahini before, given how much I love tahini and how much easier it is to find...

1 large egg
½ cup tahini
½ cup almond flour (used normal almond meal)
½ cup coconut sugar (used normal sugar)
½ tsp baking powder
One 3½ oz / 100 g 70% (or higher) dark chocolate bar, coarsely chopped
pinch coarse sea salt

Heat the oven to 350F / 180C and line a baking sheet with baking paper. In a medium bowl, beat together the egg, tahini, almond flour, sugar, and baking powder to make a thick, sticky mixture. Fold in the chopped chocolate. Scoop about 1 tbsp of batter and place it on the baking sheet. Continue, spacing each cookie about 2½ in apart (they will spread a bit), until you have used all of the dough. Sprinkle cookies with the coarse salt. Bake 8-9 min, keeping an eye on them as they can burn easily - they should be just lightly browned on top (nb mine took longer: c 20 min). Let cool for 10 min on the baking sheet, then finish cooling on a rack.


These were simple and delicious! They seemed a bit greasy when shaping but baked up ok. There was maybe a bit much (!) chocolate, I used almond meal, which I suspect is a bit different from almond flour but was what I had, and they still came out looking like cookies and tasting good. Could be good with an oat-raisin-cinnamon situation instead of chocolate. Probably easily veganised with a flax egg, although I didn’t try it (just checked, and my favourite Lidl chocolate is vegan - hurrah). Also, might be interesting to try them with black tahini - I have some...

Vanillekipferl

Christmas is approaching, and so is the birth of our own baby boy. Every day that he doesn't make a move to appear, is another day for projects like making Christmas biscuits. So yesterday/today I decided to make zimtsterne, as has become traditional... And this time I decided to try vanillekipferl (vanilla crescents) as well. This was initiated by thinking it might be a good way to use up the egg yolks left from the zimtsterne - I read that somewhere... but then I also read that traditionally vanillekipferl shouldn't have any egg in them to maximise their crumbliness. So anyway, once the seed was sown I wanted to make them, and having reviewed a few recipes decided to follow this one - with one egg yolk.

Makes c. 48 biscuits

For the dough:

120 g butter, at room temperature
50 g icing sugar
175 g flour 
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
100 g ground almonds
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt

For dredging after baking:
125 g icing sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar

Beat together butter and 50 g icing sugar. Add the flour, 1 tbsp vanilla sugar, ground almonds, egg yolk and salt and mix until it comes together as a smooth dough. Split the dough into three equal parts and roll each into a cylinder with a diameter of 1 in. Wrap each cylinder in clingfilm and put in the fridge for at least one hour, and up to 2 days.

When ready to bake, heat the oven to 163C and line two baking sheets with paper. Take one roll from the fridge and cut it into slices 1/2 in long. Roll each slice between fingers until about 2 in long, with slightly tapered ends. Curve to make a crescent, and place on the baking sheet. Leave approx. 1 in space between biscuits on the sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough, taking one roll out of the fridge at a time, until the sheets are full. Bake for 10-15 min, or until just lightly browned.

After removing from the oven, allow to sit on the baking sheet for c. 5 min. Mix 125 g icing sugar with 1 tbsp vanilla sugar in a shallow bowl. Carefully dredge each cookie in the icing sugar and place on a baking rack to cool.

Walnut, raisin, honey and oat cookies (no dry sugar, no butter, no white flour)

These were another go at perfect quick cookies using walnuts and honey - pretty tasty, probably the best yet, although maybe could cut down the oil just a bit. This recipe.

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup olive oil (or sunflower or vegetable)
1 tbsp mulberry molasses (or normal)
1 egg (beat with 1 tbsp water)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnuts

 In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients (except raisins and walnuts) together. In a medium bowl, mix all the wet ingredients together (note: measure oil before honey so the honey doesn't stick). Mix the wet into the dry. Add the raisins and walnuts and mix. Chill for c. 20 min in the fridge.

Heat the oven to 335F / 170C. Dollop the mixture in heaping teaspoonfuls onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper, and press gently with a fork. Bake for 15-20 min or until golden on the bottom of the cookie.


These came out good - perhaps a little soft/greasy, try reducing the oil a bit. Also, the recipe said they freeze well - test that next time. The flavour is all there though, and they stick together well despite not containing much flour. Could maybe also try cramming in a few more raisins+walnuts.

Chocolate, ginger and orange biscuits with golden syrup

S discovered a new word while surfing Urban Dictionary the other day: procrasturbaking (meaning, baking as a form of procrastination). Yesterday I was a little short of sleep / hungover after aerial show and subsequent drinks, and just really didn't feel like working (it was Sunday!). So I read some Guardian online instead, and found this biscuit recipe. And then I procrasturbaked.

The recipe was easily veganisable, which tempted me. And I love golden syrup. Also it's another good opportunity to use stuff up - this time weird hot chocolate in the form of dusty chocolate chunks, and homemade crystallised ginger and candied peel.

(makes approx. 20 biscuits)

50 g golden syrup
150 g light brown soft sugar (I used a mixture of this and raw sugar and it was fine)
90 ml sunflower oil
1 tsp vanilla essence
60 ml fake milk
210 g plain flour
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
¼ tsp salt
100 g candied ginger (used a mixture of candied ginger and candied peel)
100 g dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks
Zest of 1 orange (added candied peel to the ginger instead)

Heat the oven to 180C / 350F and line two baking trays with baking paper.

Measure the golden syrup, sugar, oil, vanilla essence and fake milk into a large bowl and mix. In a separate bowl mix the flour with the bicarb and salt, then add this to the wet ingredients. Stir until the just combined, then add the candied ginger, chocolate and orange zest (or candied peel).

Put teaspoons of the batter on the prepared baking trays, leaving space for spreading. Bake for 15-17 min, until the cookies’ edges are golden brown and the centres are puffy. Leave to cool for ~10 min then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.


I had to put one tray in the bottom of the oven, which it turns out is really hot. So those ones were a little burned. The rest were excellent though - nice texture, and the ginger / orange / chocolate combination is definitely a good one. Clever idea to use syrup to make a chewy texture. I think these would be easily made gluten-free as well (I'd sub plain flour with an almond-rice-cornflour mix similar to this) - the golden syrup may help with binding.

Ginger molasses cookies / biscuits

I had finished making dinner for S+I and he still wasn't home, so I decided to make cookies for journal club tomorrow. I was tired so wanted something quick and easy and foolproof, also in the mood for using things up and had an inverted jar of molasses in front of me waiting for that last tbsp or so to get eaten... So I looked for a molasses cookie recipe, and this was the one I used.

(makes about 25)

2 cups plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
2½ tsp ground ginger
½ cup marg
¾ cup sugar, plus extra for rolling
½ cup molasses (used mixture of normal, carob and date molasses)
1 tsp water (reduced from 1 tbsp as date molasses is runnier than normal molasses)

Heat the oven to 350F. Line two baking trays with baking paper. In a medium bowl, mix flour, bicarb, baking powder and ginger together with a fork. In a separate, medium bowl, cream marg, sugar, molasses and water with a wooden spoon. Beat in the flour mixture gradually. Take around one tbsp of dough at a time, roll and flatten between your hands, then invert and dunk the rounded side in sugar. Put on the baking trays, sugar side up. Bake for 10-12 min. Let cool on the baking tray.


Successfully used up two jars of molasses (normal and carob) and a tub of margarine. Cookies not bad either, S had two last night and two for breakfast this morning. Nice chewy texture, look pretty with the sugar on top. Perhaps a bit sweet.

Chocolate rosemary biscuits

We went to the Pembroke sauna for the first time in ages. I wanted to take something in case we needed a post-sauna snack. Biscuits seemed like a sensible, easily portable, easily eatable, quick to make option. I didn't have much time before we had to go, so I had a quick look at ppk and immediately settled upon these. I didn't have fresh rosemary so I used dried.

(makes ~15)

1/2 cup refined coconut oil, solid state (room temperature - not cold)
2 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary (used 3/4 tbsp crumbled dried rosemary leaves)
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup fake milk
1 tbsp ground linseed
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/3 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup roughly chopped dark chocolate (or chips)

Heat oven to 350F. Lightly grease two large baking trays. In a large bowl, beat the coconut oil and rosemary with a fork until fairly smooth. Add the sugar, and beat a bit more. Add the milk and linseed and beat. Mix in the vanilla. Add about half the flour, as well as the salt and bicarb, and mix with a spoon. Add the rest of the flour, along with the chocolate, and mix to combine. Take out walnut sized pieces of dough, round them up, flatten and place on the baking trays (they will spread a little). Bake for 10-15 min, until bottoms are golden brown. Take out and let cool for 3 minutes or so, then transfer to cooling racks to finish cooling.


These were good - decent texture and taste. I find refined coconut oil a little dull (thus it needed using up!), might prefer these with real coconutty coconut oil. I'd also like to try these with olive oil - could imagine chocolate, rosemary and olive oil being beautiful together. Difficult to get the balance of rosemary and chocolate quite right - some bites I couldn't find the rosemary, others missed chocolate, others it was bang on. Quite salty - could reduce the salt. Nice and quick and easy though, and a pretty good post-sauna snack.

Spicy cocoa and almond cookies (gluten-free)

It was A's birthday last week and I wanted to do something for it. But he didn't want. Quite emphatically. However, he was excited about going to volunteer at Drumlin Farm (where our friend D works) on Saturday, so I decided to try to make his day there as awesome as possible. Obviously a birthday needs sweet treats. Cake wouldn't have been practical, but I was daydreaming about cocoa-spiced cookies. A doesn't eat gluten so they needed to be gluten-free, but I had some eggs left he'd given me from his farmshare so an egg was do-able. I browsed over at this blog to see if there was anything that would save me making up a recipe (my time was short!), and found exactly what I was looking for, so followed that recipe.

We ate these on our lunchbreak at the farm, along with some peaches from a neighbouring farm and a whole yellow watermelon that was so ripe it had split during harvest that morning. The cookies were good: everyone seemed to like them. They were also very quick and easy to make - I threw them together in half an hour before going out on Friday evening, leaving them to cool til I got back (nb my almonds were pre-toasted). It felt good to give something back, both to the farm by volunteering and to D and A via cookies - all of them have given me a lot!

(made 11 big ones - would make more if smaller)

1/2 cup (55g) ground almonds
1/2 cup (60g) rice flour (brown or white)
1/4 cup (25g) cornstarch
1/2 cup (55g) cocoa powder
1/4 cup (55g) brown sugar
1/4 cup (50g) demerara sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/4-1/2 tsp chilli powder / cayenne
1/2 cup (65g) lightly toasted almonds, roughly chopped
1/2 cup ( 60g) chocolate, roughly chopped
1/4 cup (60ml) veg oil (used safflower)
1 egg (or 1 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 2 1/2 tbsp boiling water)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1-2 tbsp fake milk

Heat oven to 180C/350F. Line a oven tray with baking paper or grease with oil. Put dry ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well together with a fork. Add chopped almonds and chocolate and mix. In a separate, small bowl mix together the oil, egg and vanilla. Add wet to dry and mix to form a soft dough, adding 1-2 tbsp of fake milk until a moist (but not wet) consistency is obtained. Roll 2 tbsp of mixture into a ball, flatten and place on oven tray. Repeat with remaining dough. Bake for 12-15 min until just cooked. These cookies do not flatten out much more once cooked. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool on the tray.


Big thumbs up from everyone: gorgeous balance of sweet, spicy, bitter, crunch and squish - not too dry or too crumbly. Note, I want to try out making cookies with roasted cocoa as described here - didn't have time to experiment this time but another batch soon!

Biscuits (or cookies?): chocolate-pecan vs brazil nut

I was bemoaning the lack of biscuits while I took a teabreak with my labmates yesterday. Last night, on reflection, I decided I should stop moaning and take action: just make some! The obvious place to find effective biscuit recipes was ppk, so there I looked and there I found - happily without margarine, I dislike that stuff (palm oil) - decided to try two, slightly different methods - choc-pecan with ground linseed, and brazil nut with tapioca. I guess these may be cookies really, but I still want to call them biscuits...

Chocolate-pecan
(makes ~ 20)

1 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup cocoa
2 tsp ground linseed
1/2 cup pecan pieces
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup chocolate, chopped
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup fake milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Heat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl with a fork. Add the oil, milk and vanilla and mix until well combined, going in with your hands to make sure it's all together. Make into 1 inch balls and flatten into discs, arranging on the sheets so they have enough room to spread a little. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit on the sheets for 5 min, then remove to a cooling rack and leave to cool.

Brazil nut-brown sugar
(makes ~24)

1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup coconut oil (liquid state)
1/4 cup almond milk
1 tablespoon tapioca flour
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup brazil nuts, chopped

Heat oven to 350 F. Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Mix sugars, oil, milk and tapioca flour in a mixing bowl with a fork: beat for about 2 min,until it resembles smooth caramel. Mix in the vanilla. Add 1 cup of flour, bicarb and salt. Mix until well incorporated. Mix in the rest of the flour. Fold in the brazil nuts. Make into 1 inch balls and flatten into discs, arranging on the sheets so they have enough room to spread a little. Bake for about 8 minutes – no more than 9 (+less if they are small) – until they are just a little browned around the edges. Remove from the oven and let sit on the sheets for 5 min, then remove to a cooling rack and leave to cool.


The chocolate pecan ones were super simple and came out really, really good: rich and intensely chocolatey, masses of pecans and chocolate pieces, sweet and slightly salty. I followed the recipe to the word.

The brazil nut ones didn't go so well. The batter was really oily and sticky so I added a little more flour (total ~2 cups instead of 1 1/2), so then I could shape them, but they didn't really spread or brown in the oven. They taste OK but the texture is kinda cakey instead of biscuity, and they don't look so nice as they are really pale all over. Perhaps this is all because I used coconut oil instead of canola? Dunno, but if looking for a quick, effective biscuit recipe the choc-pecan assembly is the way to go... Edit: although... I took the first half of each batch to woodturning clean-up and the boys pounded the brazil nut ones and left almost all the choc-pecan ones. Different tastes? Also I ate a brazil nut one about 6 days later and thought they had really improved with age.

Vanilla bean and coconut oil biscuits

I bought a few things I'd had trouble finding locally from a spice purveying website the other day: celery seeds, cream of tartar... I was really happy with my purchase - the items were reasonably priced, there was a good selection, I could find everything I wanted, delivery was free, the package arrived quickly... I also gave in to temptation and bought some vanilla pods while I was there - I came across them while browsing and I've never cooked with them / always meant to.

Then they sat in my spice cupboard for a month or so. I was beginning to wonder if I might still never get around to cooking with them. Until I saw this recipe and it suggested a perfect opportunity.

(makes about 14 large, thin biscuits)

3 oz sugar
1/4 tsp ground sea salt
1 whole vanilla bean
4 oz coconut oil
5 oz flour (mixture of plain and wholemeal)
1/4 tsp baking powder

Snip the hard tips off the vanilla bean and discard. Snip the rest into inch long pieces and put into a spice blender. Add some of the sugar and blend until the bean is broken up completely into tiny pieces. Transfer the vanilla bean / sugar mixture to a mixing bowl along with the rest of the sugar. Add the coconut oil and beat until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix to make a smooth dough.

Take balls of the dough (about 2 inch diameter spheres) and roll / squash out between two pieces of baking paper until about 5 mm thick. Transfer to a baking tray lined with baking paper. When the tray is full, move it to the fridge and chill for about half an hour. The biscuits will firm up in the fridge and become much easier to move around. While they are chilling, heat the oven to 340F. When ready, move the tray(s) of rolled out biscuits to the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until lightly browned around the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the trays for 5-10 minutes before carefully moving to a cooling rack. They are quite fragile so be careful.


These biscuits don't look like much (misshapen and brownish), but they have an intense taste: the coconut and vanilla are sweet and familiar / exotic both at once. And they're crumbly and flaky and melt-in-the-mouth. They aren't very pretty and a bit lacking in substance for my taste, so I don't know if they will become staples, but they are definitely lovely. And it was really easy to use that vanilla bean - I am inspired to think of something exciting to make with my second one. Perhaps in icing?

Pumpkin chocolate cake-cookies

I've been getting through about three squashes a week recently, pumpkin/squash are great stuff. I'd rarely baked with pumpkin before I moved here, but I am fully converted now.

These are partly for the harvest festival we are having at the garden today, and partly for our friend G, whose birthday is on Thursday and we spent the day with yesterday, and who fortuitously loves pumpkin anything (and also dislikes chocolate, I remembered too late - but it was OK, turns out he likes chocolate chips).

I wanted to make pumpkin cookies, and considered a bunch of recipes before settling on this one. I think my original vision was something a bit more cookie-ish - these are quite cake-y - but they taste great so it's OK.

(makes about two dozen large cookies)

2 cups plain flour
1 1/3 cups oats
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 2/3 cups sugar (mixture of brown sugar and granulated)
2/3 cup veg oil
2 tbsp carob molasses
1 cup cooked pureed pumpkin (about 1 smallish acorn squash)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp ground linseed
1/2 cup plain chocolate chunks

Heat oven to 350F. Lightly grease 2 baking sheets.

Mix together flour, oats, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices.

In a separate bowl, mix together sugars, oil, molasses, pumpkin, vanilla and linseed. Add dry ingredients to wet in 3 batches, folding to combine. Fold in the chocolate chunks.

Drop by tablespoons onto greased baking sheets. They don’t spread very much so they can be placed only an inch apart. Flatten the tops of the cookies with a fork or with your fingers. Bake for 16 minutes at 350F.

Remove from oven and move to a wire rack to cool. These taste best when they’ve had some time to cool and set. They taste even better the next day.


Definitely a hit with everyone who ate them, although I think the GF ones I made at the same time went down better!

Cacao

young cacao pod

Our first stop in Belize, and something I was definitely excited about, was Punta Gorda, in the cacao-growing area of Toledo.  There is a considerable Mayan population there now (probably the biggest proportion of the population of any region of Belize), but of course there were many more back in the day.  Cacao was incredibly important to the Ancient Maya - they used it as currency.  After the mysterious Mayan collapse it seems like cacao in the region went a bit underground, with Mayan communities continuing to grow it and to drink hot cacao on special occasions, but little or no trade.

nearly-mature cacao pod

 Then Hershey's came along and imported their hybrid cacao plants and grew them in Belize during the American years (I was surprised they actually put cacao in their sick-flavoured 'chocolate').  And now there are three or four small-scale producers, placing an emphasis on maintaining the connections between farmers, chocolate manufacturers and consumers.  Near PG there is Cotton Tree Lodge (owned by Americans), and Cyrila's (owned by an entrepreneurial, local, Mayan family).  We took a tour of Cyrila's farm and they showed us the process of making chocolate, as well as letting us taste everything from the raw pods through roasted beans to hot cacao, cacao wine and finally chocolate.  The roasted beans were especially wonderful, and watching them turn into chocolate as you worked the grinder somewhat magical.

I started thinking about the idea that things that grow together taste good together.  I guess chocolate tastes good with about anything, but the flavours they were selling - chili chocolate, coffee chocolate, orange chocolate - seemed like such hard-and-fast, classic combinations...  I brought home some roasted cacao beans / nibs, and wanted to make something good with them.  Inspired by this recipe, I decided to combine the cacao with another crop important in Central America / the Caribbean: lime (where would guacamole or Cuba Libre be without lime?).


Cacao-Lime Cookies

Makes about 16.

1/2 cup fake butter
3/8 cup brown sugar
3/8 cup white sugar
1/2 tbsp ground linseed mixed with 1 1/2 tbsp hot water
1 1/4 tsp fake milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
7/8 cup flour
3/8 cup cocoa
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/8 cup cacao nibs
zest of half a lime


Heat the oven to 350F. Beat the butter and sugars until well mixed and light. Mix in the linseed mix, fake milk and vanilla.

Mix with a fork the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cocoa powder. Add this to the butter mix gradually. Finally, mix in the cocoa nibs and lime zest.

Take small spoonfuls of the dough and roll into one inch sized balls and place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12 minutes. Let cool on the pan for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.


These have gone down a bit too well with S already - I intended to take them to Ladies' Drawing Club tomorrow, since the whole cacao aspect of the trip was partly catalysed by meeting Sam (who is currently working at Cotton Tree Lodge) through Andrea - but S has been making good inroads into the cookie pile: maybe I should have made double after all...