Recipe Corner - Good Wife Cookies

We've been doing some de-cluttering over the last couple of weeks. You would have thought that there is a limit to the amount of stuff it is possible to cram into a two bedroomed flat, but several bags later there is still a way to go.

Last Sunday was particularly traumatic; I managed to uncover some skirting boards that haven't seen the light of day in a while and promptly wished I'd left the layer of camouflaging clutter alone. Feeling like a thoroughly bad housewife, I promptly repaired to the kitchen and made these. Nothing like a bit of baking to restore one's sense that one IS, in fact, a domestic goddess. Anyway, I enjoyed them so much that I whipped up another batch today. Truly the sign of a successful recipe.

I must admit that I have been eating these for breakfast. But this is kind of ok; just like muffin is acceptable breakfast food (despite being cake by any other name) so is any baked good that contains oats - because it's practically porridge.

These lasted in an airtight tin for a good 3-4 days.

Date and stem ginger cookies

Ingredients

175g butter
175g soft brown sugar
100g golden syrup
85g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
250g porridge oats (you see!!)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
100g stoned dates, chopped
100g stem ginger, chopped
2 tbsp boiling water
1 medium egg, beaten

Makes 24 cookies, 5 pro points per cookie

Preheat the oven to 180 (fan 160) and line several baking sheets with baking parchment.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter, golden syrup and sugar together over a gentle heat. Meanwhile, measure out your dry ingredients.

When you have a sweet, golden pool bubbling away in the pan then tip in your dry ingredients and stir well. Add the raw egg and water in the hope that it will stop you licking the spoon (it won't).

Allow the mixture to cool slightly and then, with slightly damp hands, form into balls and place them on the baking sheets, flattening them out slightly as you put them down. They will spread when cooking, so allow plenty of space - I got six to a normal size baking sheet.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. They will appear very soft on removal from the oven but they will firm up as they cool.

Serve for breakfast or otherwise.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone