Paleo Pecan Sandies

 

I'm back to cookies! It's been some time. I love making cookies because they make such an easy gift, and since it was a good friend's birthday a few days ago, it seemed like a perfect excuse to eat cookie dough give a heartfelt homemade gift.

Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

It occurred to me as I was looking through my previous posts that I haven't posted a cookie recipe for a month. One whole month. This might be a record. 

4-Ingredient Nutella Cookies

It's Monday again. It just insists on rolling around every six days, doesn't it? I've been fortunate enough to be on a two week break from classes, but as it's Monday, it means it has officially ended. It's sad news, people.

Luckily I've got something to give you that isn't so sad. Right the opposite. Especially if you love nutella - and come on, who doesn't? - you will absolutely love these cookies. They are dense, chewy and fudgy with a crackly brownie-like top, which isn't surprising considering I've adapted the recipe from these practically infamous 4-ingredient nutella brownie bites.  And the best bit is that they can be made, baked and eaten in less than 30 minutes.

Custard Powder Cookies

I wasn't going to bake anything for Easter this year because this month has already been pretty full of sweet things. Except, well, I can't quite pass up an opportunity to bake on a long weekend. So here are some last minute cookies to sweeten up your Easter holiday!

Chinese New Year Assorted Cookie Boxes

Happy Chinese New Year!  

Which is... tomorrow. Ah. I meant to publish this a lot earlier so that people could have a chance to try some recipes if they wanted. As usual, my sense of timing is warped. But better late than never, eh?

CNY is a week of family meals and visits, gift-giving and money-receiving. Cookies are abundant. The ones that I'm writing about today aren't very typical CNY cookies at all, because I wanted to try something different. So let me do a quick run through of these cookies.

Momofuku Cornflake-Chocolate-Chip-Marshmallow Cookies

When I was a kid, I ate copious amounts of rice krispie treats, chocolate chip cookies, cornflake clusters and s'mores - the microwaved and campfire type (this was back when I had to do compulsory camping in high school - it was torture, except for the s'mores bit).  These were the treats that would disappear quickly off the tables of bake sales, paying HK$5 for a baked treat.  Those were the days.

Orange White Chocolate Spritz Cookies

I know what you're thinking.  Why are you posting a cookie recipe five days after Christmas?!  I know most of you are all cookie-d out, but cookies seem to be all I've got at the moment.  Lots and lots of cookies coming at you in the very near future.  

But these ones aren't just good for Christmas - and to be honest, they were made a day after Christmas, anyway - they can be little colorful New Years' cookies, too.  After all, they've got sprinkles on them.  Sprinkles upgrade any baked good to a celebration status.  This is fact.

A Tasmanian Holiday + Oat Shortbread with Chocolate Drizzle and Sea Salt

Get ready for a mega-long post.

This week, I've been in Tasmania.  Family trip #I've-completely-lost-count.  Hobart, Swansea and Launceston.  Because I now have a blog as an outlet for my ramblings with which I can do whatever I like, I thought I would share some photos.  If you're only interested in the recipe, skip on ahead, I promise I don't mind.

Cookie Sticks

I seem to be on a cookie craze.  What can I say?  Cookies are the perfect thing to bake during my exam induced hibernation period.  They're fast enough so I don't feel guilty procrastinating and are the perfect incentive to keep working.

Saffron Vanilla Snickerdoodles

There is something incredibly satisfying and strangely idyllic about seeing a tray full of cookies cooling next to a window.  A picture immediately springs to mind of a middle aged, jolly, plump housewife in an old fashioned English cottage with a thatched roof and yellow door, pulling a pan of generously proportioned and puffed up golden brown cookies from the oven with a pair of blue-and-white checkered oven mitts and setting them next to the window to cool, so that the surface of each cookie is burnished with warm sunshine.

Of course, my own setting is nowhere near as romantic.  I am no jolly housewife and instead of a quaint English home, it is a cramped unit in a buzzing Sydney suburb where the oven door opens just slightly short to the width of the kitchen, where there is barely room next to the window to fit a baking tray and on the counter there is a green-and-white checked tea cloth instead of oven mitts.  But the important part, of course, are the cookies - and these Saffron Vanilla Snickerdoodles are well worth it whether baked in your tiny city apartment or in an English countryside.

Tahini & Almond Cookies

People who frequently bake will also frequently be faced with this problem: what the hell am I supposed to do with the rest of that [insert rarely used ingredient that you spent quite a lot of money on for one specific recipe only] now?!

It's the bane of my baking existence.  And this is not only for rare ingredients either, but also for common ingredients with short shelf lives - any dairy products, for that matter.  I have thrown away only the baking gods know how many half full cartons of cream and buttermilk after having used it for one recipe.  I'm not proud of it.