Monday, February 11, 2013

Coconut Sugar Cookies

When I was eighteen an older gentleman (who clammed to be a wizard)poured me a cup of green tea. As he passed me my cup he looked inside it and sadly shook his head. "Just look at all those tea leaves Cherry!" he exclaimed. "You will have too many boyfriends." I smiled at him and thought nothing of it. Today however, five years later as I poured myself some tea and looked to see an array of tea leaves settled on the bottom of the cup I too shook my head and thought "If only you knew." 

I think love is meant to be tricky in your early twenties, and I am learning not to spend too much time worrying about this, but instead focus on the important things. Like baking cookies. 

At the end of the day, I feel a little honoured to have shared my cup (life) with some tea leaves (people who I am fond of and respect so much.) And well, if it does get a little too hectic, you can always ditch the tea and switch to wine. 

All this talk of love, really makes me think about that looming day.......valentines day. Its actually one of my favourite holidays, but this year I've been learning that its not such a fun holiday when your a pastry chef. I have been swamped by work and cookie orders. I had been planning to make all gingerbread and chocolate cookies for my order, but when I got to making my third batch I realised that I had run out of ginger. I scouted around my pantry to see what other ingredients I could find and decided to give coconut sugar cookies a try. I guess necessity is the mother of all invention after all.....the cookies were super lovely. So now I have a new recipe to share with you. 

I hope you make these cookies for someone you love this valentines day. I hope your looking into a cup full of happy memories and tea leaves.....or better yet, I hope your enjoying a sunday afternoon glass of wine. 

Coconut Sugar Cookies 

Ingredients:

  • 350g of plain flour
  • 100g of self raising flour
  • 125g sugar
  • 125g salted butter
  • 135g golden syrup
  • 1 egg lightly beaten
  • 1tsp of coconut essence
  • 1/4 cup of shredded coconut
What to do:

1. Mix together flours and sugar.
2. With either the help of a kitchen aid or just your fingers rub in the butter until the mix resembles bread crumbs.
3. Add the shredded coconut.
4. Add the golden syrup and stir
5. Beat together the egg and essence and add to the mix.
6. Work the dough together but be conscious not to overmix it. If the mix looks a little dry you can always add a touch more syrup.
7. Roll the dough out between two pieces of baking paper.
8. Cut cookies into shapes.
9. Place the cut out cookies in the fridge to rest for half an hour.
10. Bake cookies at 160 for 20 minutes or until golden.