Spice Cookies | We Have Always Lived in the Castle
In the morning Constance decided to make spice cookies for dinner; that was too bad, because if any of us had known we could have told her not to bother, that Thursday was going to be the last day. Even Uncle Julian did not suspect, however; he felt a little strong on Thursday morning and late in the morning Constance brought him into the kitchen which smell richly of spice cookies and he continued putting his papers into the box.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Shirley Jackson
I’m a few days late with my latest recipe post but I wanted to try and stretch this one out for Halloween. Halloween isn’t something that has been been hugely celebrated within Australia, but I’ve noticed in the last few years that more and more children seem to be on the street trick or treating, and I really can’t argue against children being cute in costumes. We handed out an array of lollies and icy poles last night as they came knocking, the frozen treat greatly appreciated by many in the hot weather.
I picked up Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle at random a few weeks ago, having finished the book I had on me over lunch and wanting another for the train back home. I ended up loving it. A gothic mystery story, the entirety of the book was filled with an array of descriptive foods and thoughts - described in a way that utterly captivated me. It was hard to choose exactly what food I wanted to explore from it (I may try my hand at Constance’s special rum cakes in the future), but ended up deciding on Spice Cookies.
Also, before we get to the recipe part. Yes these are quite burnt. My oven as always, is terrible for baking and there is no way to regulate temperature basically. I did do a second batch the next day and realised that I just needed to be shifting them around inside the oven and covering them with foil for a little bit. No need to do that yourselves, unless you also have an oven from the 70's (that they don't make parts for anymore - it's been missing a handle for three years) that is utterly terrible for baking of any sort. I will likely remake them again another day and do some nicer photographs but eh, this is kinda what happens sometimes.
These cookies are amazing, a gingerbready delight of spices, the perfect snack to have with a tea or hot chocolate. I took numerous batches to work and they all disappeared quite quickly. I sourced the recipe from here, but ended up changing around a few measurements and ingredients to better suit what I wanted.
Spice Cookies
Makes approx. 16
Ingredients
2 1/4 cup plain
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cardamon
1/4 tsp sea salt
115g butter, melted
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp raw sugar, for rolling the cookies in
Preheat oven to 180C and prepare two baking trays with a layer of baking paper.
Combine plain flour, baking powder, all spices and salt together in a bowl and combine well.
In a seperate bowl, combine the melted butter with the brown sugar, vanilla and molasses.
Combine the wet ingredients with the dry and mix until combined, it should form a soft dough - if it feels too wet, add a touch more flour.
Cover and refrigerate for approx. 30 minutes.
Roll the cookie dough into balls (size is up to you, but try not to make them too giant) that are all roughly the same size, press the tops down into the raw sugar and flatten slightly.
Place the cookies onto the prepared trays and bake for 10 - 12 minutes, or until the cookies have expanded and are cracking on top slightly.
Leave on the tray to cool for at least five minutes before placing onto a cooling rack. Enjoy!