Cookies - Something old, Something new

 Here at The Hebe Bee, this is post number 50. 

Surely that is a milestone worth celebrating with a little treat. Let me share one with you. For very little effort you could make up a batch of Cranberry cookies and fill your kitchen with the most heavenly smell which is nearly (but not quite) as good as the taste.   As they cool and set, make a pot of your favourite brew - tea, coffee, hot chocolate, the choice is yours - and find someone to share a delicious moment.

As a child I never had 'cookies'. Absolutely true. Treats like these were called biscuits and most often they were home-made.  Do you find that nothing quite nourishes the inner child like something your mum used to make? I'll admit I'm not averse to shop bought cookies, but making my own means I can hit the ideal medium between the chewy texture of the five-in-a-bag cookie and the crisp crunch of the ones that my mother used to make.

The Something New in the post title refers to Flora Cuisine, the oil component in the following recipe. ( No, I am not being sponsored!) Some weeks back it was being promoted in a local supermarket and I was handed a sample to try. A little later, a recipe for cinnamon and raisin cookies appeared in an advertisement in another store's freebie magazine. This recipe is my tweak on that one. The Something Old is the  flavour combination of cranberries, cinnamon and orange which is a particular favourite of mine.

Cranberry, Orange and Cinnamon Cookies

 You will need:

• 70g Flora Cuisine
• 55g castor sugar
• 100g soft brown sugar
• 175g Self-raising Flour 
• 1  medium egg
• grated zest of an orange
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence (or vanilla powder)
• 90g dried cranberries
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

What you need to do: 

1. Preheat the oven to 190 deg C. Lightly grease 2 cookie sheets. You could use the Flora Cuisine for this. 
2. Sift together the flour, cinnamon and bicarb into a large bowl.
3. Roughly chop about half the dried cranberries then add all 90g of them to the bowl.
4. Beat the egg and add it. Then add all the remaining ingredients. It doesn't really matter about the order just place all the ingredients into the bowl and start to mix.

At first it seems far too dry to make into cookie dough.

But keep mixing and eventually it all sticks together and a smoother, shinier dough studded with cranberries is ready to be dolloped onto the cookie sheets.

     5. Use a soup spoon to scoop the mixture into balls on the baking tray. This amount will make about 15 cookies of this size. You can make them smaller or larger of course. Set the mixture in balls or heaps on the tray and remember to allow for quite a lot of spreading, so not too near the edge or each other.

    6. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes. Smaller ones will need less time, larger ones more of course. I think the ideal is a nicely browned edge so that the cookie is crisp at the edges but softer in the middle.

     7. Transfer them carefully onto a wire cooling rack to set and firm up. Once they are quite cool they can be stored in an airtight jar. Just how well they will keep will depend entirely on how many people can smell what's cooking and know where you keep the cookie jar.

The basic dough in this recipe could be the basis for all kinds of variations. I have tried chopped pecans and they worked well with wholemeal self-raising flour. Now I know,  whatever wholesome extras you tuck into a dough with this amount of sugar just won't produce healthy snack. Sometimes we need a treat, especially when there are endless days of rain when it is supposed to be summer. If you have read this far through a blog post with "Cookies" in the title, then I am sure you don't need me to suggest chocolate chips are worth considering. (By the way, I have given up my Web research into the ultimate choc chip cookie recipe  - I am just afraid I might find it!)

Whatever winning combination you come up with - remember it is good to share. Suggestions in the comments box please.