Friday 6th March
Hi there!
I'm being naughty today. I'm doing everything and anything to put off the start of the hunt for stuff to go to a bootsale - and I'm afraid I couldn't tell you exactly why. I'm quite keen to get some stuff cleared, I could do with a few pennies extra, yet here I am - blogging! Not the sign of the eager bootsaler is it?
Perhaps what's at the root of this is the fact that I just know this is going to give me jip in the back. All that bending and rooting through stuff. Perhaps I'll just stick to the odd few books, and that's that.
I've been making Walnut Cookies. I'm sorry to say I seem to have developed a taste for them - the recipe I've been using is a fairly basic one that I sort of adapt to any sort of cookie, biscuit that I fancy. I put the oven on to about 180 degrees c, break open a pack of walnuts and break them into small pieces - reserving a few whole halves for the tops of the biscuits. Then I spread the broken ones onto a tray and pop them into the oven to toast as the oven heats up - takes about 7 - 10 minutes.
In a bowl, I put a heaped tablespoon of plain flour, a tablespoon of cornflour, a half tablespoon full of icing sugar, and about a third of a tablespoon of butter. I rub this in, as if I was going to make crumble, or pastry. When it's rubbed to the consistency of fine breadcrumbs, I add a tablespoon full of granulated sugar. At this point, throw in the toasted walnuts, and mix them into your 'breadcrumbs'. Then I add some water - put it in a glass to add rather than wafting underneath the tap, it's too easy to put too much water in. If you add it by desert spoon, you'll be able to control it. Then I mix it together using the spoon - you can use a knife if you find it easier. You're looking to make a fairly sticky lump of dough!
Get a couple of baking trays - I use two, because my baking trays are quite small and I reckon to get 6 cookies to a tray. With this type of quantity, I'd expect to get fourteen to sixteen cookies - I put them on the trays using the desert spoon, and it's a sticky mix so I use the tablespoon to force it off the spoon. You can try and flatten them a bit, but I quite like them to be little lumpy buns almost - they're hard to flatten because of the nuts. I put a walnut half on the top, and sprinkle the top of each biscuit with granulated sugar. I find that the golden granulated is the best sort for this recipe, the flavour goes well with walnuts.
You then put the trays in the oven for a good 10 to 12 minutes. Keep an eye on them - you're looking to get a nice golden brown, but not burnt, and the walnuts on the top will roast quickly. That's why I don't put them in to toast with the other nuts at the start of the recipe. Being on the top and uncovered, they'll toast well enough whilst the biscuits are cooking. You'll find that the sugar caramalises as well - when you take them out of the oven, put them on a rack to cool. Sometimes you'll get caramalised sugar on the bottom of the tray and I scoop this up with the palatte knife and drape it across the top of the biscuit. It's scrummy!
You can use whatever nut you like, or you could use fruit. Lemon rind and the juice to mix instead of water is a good one, and in the summer you can use raspberries. In fact, any kind of berry goes well with this. Just make sure that you use the cornflour as well, if you use all ordinary flour they become very tough - don't want to break your teeth there! And whilst I'm thinking of it, if you have left over Easter Eggs, why not break up the chocolate and fling in with some toasted hazlenuts? I shall really have to try that one at some point this weekend!!!
