Cookies that bring you up

Bad weather, neverending hours at the computer with my essay, tired and restless. So it was before I decided to go for cookies. Cinammon and ginger always bring me up :) And the recipe is a quickie!

I wish I could say that they are "chewy" too, but I'm not gonna lie to you. They are semi-soft, maybe a little chewy just after you take them out of the oven. I've been actually hunting for a recipe for chewy chocolate chip cookies, I tried two so far and I was disappointed. I thought that making a good batch of cookies must be a piece of cake! I don't know what went wrong but my last two cookie batches were no good. This one turned out just nice, I promise! The lovely spice mix of cinammon, ginger and cardamom is probably nothing you are longing for when it's summer, but here, where I am it's only 7 degrees and raining..The taste of these cookies reminded me strongly of Christmas :)

Cinammon&ginger cookies for good mood :)

You'll need:

75 g butter 

1/3 cup packed light brown muscovado sugar 

1/3 cup golden syrup

1 tsp ginger

0,5 tsp cardamom

2 tsp cinammon

1,5 cup self raising flour

Method:

1. Set the oven to 200 degrees.

2. Melt the butter together with the sugar and the golden syrup on low heat.

3. Let the sugar dissolve in butter, stir in the spices and remove from heat.

4. Cool down. Stir in flour.

5. Roll balls out of the dough and place them on a baking sheet leaving a few centimeters between. Use a fork to flatten the cookie balls.

6. Bake for 8-10 minutes. And done!

Kolasnittar - Swedish toffee shortbread

 

 As I'll be spending quite some time outside home this week, I thought I'd rather make a batch of homemade cookies than getting a chocolate bar of 1000 calories and additives from a sweetshop. Smart, ain't it? I seem to never find it difficult coming up with reasons to bake - not even on Monday morning :))
Searching for some quick and easy recipe, I remembered having kolasnittar at one of our morning breaks at work. They were just perfect with a cup of black coffee! "Kola" means caramel or toffee in Swedish which suggests the richness of taste. If done properly, the inside remains chewy.
I chose to follow Leila Lindholm's recipe because I liked her idea of using ginger in the dough.

Kolasnittar

 

Ingredients:
2 1/4 dl all-purpose flour
1 tea spoon ground ginger
1 tea spoon vanilla sugar
1/2 tea spoon bicarbonate (soda)
100 g butter at room temperature
1 dl caster sugar
2 table spoons golden syrup

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees.
2. Mix flour, ginger, vanilla sugar and bicarbonate in a bowl.
3. In another bowl, beat butter, syrup and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Add the flour mix and work quickly into a smooth dough.
5. Split the dough into two pieces and roll out to "sausages".
6. Put the sausages on a baking sheet. Flatten them out by using hands or a rolling-pin.
7. Use a fork to make a pattern if you like.
8. Bake for about 15 minutes. Let cool a little and cut diagonally.

Store in a jar or freeze in some.

Have a great week and don't skip the coffee breaks! :)