I know everyone else is sweltering and eating salad and waiving fans about. There’s even a little low level moaning going on. Well I love this heat. I really love it. And it doesn’t make me want to turn the oven off; it makes me want to bake even more. As if the extra heat of the oven somehow welcome the suns rays saying ‘give us everything you’ve got.’ Or something like that.
So whilst everyone else is eating ice-poles and salad and sitting in the shade glowing I shall be eating curry, drinking hot tea and basking in the sun eating squidgy homemade chocolate ginger cookies. The best bit is they’re even better for this weather, all the more squidgy for sinking your teeth into.
(They’re also dairy free, made especially for my pal who’s dairy free at the mo whilst breast feeding her not so keen on dairy son.)
One year ago: Clementine cake and Macadamia and white chocolate shortbread
Two years ago: Teacher’s pet chocolate and hazelnut oaty biscuits and Spelt loaf
Three years ago: Restorative chicken and leek risotto
And if you like ginger things: Ginger cake and Rhubarb and ginger chutney are very nice indeed
Squidgy chocolate ginger cookies
Makes 16 ish
Ingredients:
- 200g castor sugar
- 125g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 40g cocoa (check for ingredients if you’re making these specifically as dairy free)
- 60mls vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 60g crystallised ginger, chopped
Mix all the ingredients together apart from the ginger until really smooth – you can do this by hand if you like. Then stir through the ginger. The mixture will be a sticky gloopy mess. Then chill for 1 hour.
Bake tablespoons of the mixture spaced 4cm apart on a lined baking tray at 180C/gas mark 4 for about 10 – 15 minutes until spread out and the edges are starting to look a little crispy. The middles will look a bit puffed up and almost uncooked – when you remove them slam the baking sheet on the workbench about 5 times and this will deflate the cookies a little. Leave to cool completely on the trays and gently peel off once cool. Store between layers of non stick greaseproof paper or otherwise you’ll just have one massive stuck together cookie – and fighting is not dignified in this heat.
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