Four Kinds of Cookies | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Monkeys had set them down near a farm house, and the four travellers walked up to it and knocked at the door. It was opened by the farmers' wife, and when Dorothy asked for something to eat the woman gave them all a good dinner, with three kinds of cake and four kinds of cookies, and a bowl of milk for Toto.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
L. Frank Baum

Melbourne lockdown v.4 (I think…) and apparently all I will do during this time is bake things. I’m not really the biggest sweet tooth around, give me some vegemite on toast over chocolate anyway, but everything I’ve made seems to have been whisked away anyhow.

For the principle of the matter, I would refer to these as biscuits usually - because that’s really what they are. But the pages of the book that this recipe hails from, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, is an American tale and thus I have given in and shall refer to them as cookies.

The base recipe for the cookies is taken from the Smith and Deli-cious cookbook, I have made some changes to it, removed some parts that really added nothing to the recipe and changed a few little things. The real delicious part of the recipe comes from what you can add in, my variations of them kind of rotate around chocolate (because honestly, what else) but you can basically substitute the nuts and chocolate for other things if you want.

Cookies, four kinds
Ingredients
270g dark brown sugar
150g butter
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste
1 tbsp No Egg, mixed with 3 tbsp water *see note
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
Add ins
Salted Chocolate Cookie
160g dark chocolate, chopped
2 tsp flaky sea salt
Peanut Butter and Chocolate
160g dark chocolate, chopped
3 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
White Chocolate and Macadamia
80g white chocolate, chopped
80g macadamias, chopped
Biscoff Double Chocolate
4 tbsp Biscoff spread
80g dark chocolate, chopped
80g white chocolate, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Cream together the sugar and butter until it is fluffy and a little lighter in colour. Stir in the No Egg and water mixture, and then add in the flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until the dry ingredients are completely combined in.

3. Now is when you can add whatever add-ins you like to it as well! Which chocolates or anything you want, add it in now. If you’re doing the peanut or Biscoff variation, save a little of the spreads to the side.

4. Roll the mixture into even sized balls and place onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Make sure they’re distanced enough to allow for the spread when baking.

5. If making the Biscoff or peanut butter ones, bake for 7 minutes and then spoon the remaining spread lightly on top of each before returning them to the oven for a further 8 minutes. The spread will melt in and be delicious on top.

6. For the others, bake for around 15 minutes, for the chocolate ones sprinkle a little flaky sea salt on top once they come out.

7. Leave to cool on the tray until they harden and enjoy!

Spice Cookies | We Have Always Lived in the Castle

In the morning Constance decided to make spice cookies for dinner; that was too bad, because if any of us had known we could have told her not to bother, that Thursday was going to be the last day. Even Uncle Julian did not suspect, however; he felt a little strong on Thursday morning and late in the morning Constance brought him into the kitchen which smell richly of spice cookies and he continued putting his papers into the box.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Shirley Jackson

I’m a few days late with my latest recipe post but I wanted to try and stretch this one out for Halloween. Halloween isn’t something that has been been hugely celebrated within Australia, but I’ve noticed in the last few years that more and more children seem to be on the street trick or treating, and I really can’t argue against children being cute in costumes. We handed out an array of lollies and icy poles last night as they came knocking, the frozen treat greatly appreciated by many in the hot weather.

I picked up Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle at random a few weeks ago, having finished the book I had on me over lunch and wanting another for the train back home. I ended up loving it. A gothic mystery story, the entirety of the book was filled with an array of descriptive foods and thoughts - described in a way that utterly captivated me. It was hard to choose exactly what food I wanted to explore from it (I may try my hand at Constance’s special rum cakes in the future), but ended up deciding on Spice Cookies.

Also, before we get to the recipe part. Yes these are quite burnt. My oven as always, is terrible for baking and there is no way to regulate temperature basically. I did do a second batch the next day and realised that I just needed to be shifting them around inside the oven and covering them with foil for a little bit. No need to do that yourselves, unless you also have an oven from the 70's (that they don't make parts for anymore - it's been missing a handle for three years) that is utterly terrible for baking of any sort. I will likely remake them again another day and do some nicer photographs but eh, this is kinda what happens sometimes.

These cookies are amazing, a gingerbready delight of spices, the perfect snack to have with a tea or hot chocolate. I took numerous batches to work and they all disappeared quite quickly. I sourced the recipe from here, but ended up changing around a few measurements and ingredients to better suit what I wanted.

Spice Cookies
Makes approx. 16
Ingredients
2 1/4 cup plain
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cardamon
1/4 tsp sea salt
115g butter, melted
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp raw sugar, for rolling the cookies in

1. Preheat oven to 180C and prepare two baking trays with a layer of baking paper.

2. Combine plain flour, baking powder, all spices and salt together in a bowl and combine well.

3. In a seperate bowl, combine the melted butter with the brown sugar, vanilla and molasses.

4. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry and mix until combined, it should form a soft dough - if it feels too wet, add a touch more flour.

5. Cover and refrigerate for approx. 30 minutes.

6. Roll the cookie dough into balls (size is up to you, but try not to make them too giant) that are all roughly the same size, press the tops down into the raw sugar and flatten slightly.

7. Place the cookies onto the prepared trays and bake for 10 - 12 minutes, or until the cookies have expanded and are cracking on top slightly.

8. Leave on the tray to cool for at least five minutes before placing onto a cooling rack. Enjoy!