Cookie & Biscuit recipes

(Bronllys Garden Centre today where I was Very Good and didn't buy a thing!)

APPLE DROP COOKIES

2 cups sifted all-purpose (Plain) flour - that's 9 oz
1 tspn baking soda (Bicarbonate of soda)
1/2tspn salt
1 tspn cinnamon
1/2 tspn cloves
1/2 tspn allspice
1/2 tspn nutmeg
1 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 cup finely chopped unpared (but washed) red apple (1 small apple)
1 cup raisins, chopped
1/2 cup soft butter or margarine
1 1/3 cups light brown sugar, firmly packed (Demerara - I used a scant one cup)
1 egg, unbeaten
1/4 cup apple juice or cider

(I have proper cup measures, but if you don't just use a tea cup, same size for all cup measurements)


Preheat oven to 400 deg. F.  Lightly grease two cookie sheets.

Sift flour with baking soda, salt and spices into large bowl. 

Stir in walnuts, apple, and raisins and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, and then add egg and apple juice; beat until combined.

Stir in flour mixture and mix well.

Drop by tablespoonfuls, 2 inches apart, onto prepared cookie sheets.

Bake 8 minutes, or until golden-brown.  Makes about 4 dozen, but I made mine a bit larger and made less.

(N.B.  I chopped and cooked up some cooking apples, without sugar, and used a couple of tablespoons of this in the mixture, plus a tablespoonful of the cooked apple juice.) I have frozen the left-over ones of these as they are quite cakey.

Recipe taken from McCall's Cookie Collection booklet, found years ago at a car boot sale.  Judging by the illustrations this would have been published in the early 1980s.



AMERICAN GINGER SLICES

6 whole preserved gingers (from jar of ginger in syrup)
150g/5 1/2 oz butter or margarine
100g/4 oz caster sugar
1/2 tspn ground ginger
300g/ 11 oz plain flour
1 egg yolk to glaze

Very finely chop 3 of the whole gingers and dice the remainder.  Cream the butter or margarine with the sugar, egg, salt, ground ginger and finely chopped ginger.  Sift in the flour and work quickly together to obtain a smooth dough.  Form into a ball, wrap in foil or cling film and leave for 2 hours in the fridge (I took mine out after an hour).

Preheat the oven to moderately hot (200 deg. C, 400 Deg. F, Gas mark 6).  Divide the dough into three and roll out one piece at a time on a floured board to about 5mm/ 1/4" thick.  Cut out oblongs about 6 x 3.5 cm (2 1/2" x 1 1/2"), and place on a baking tray.  Beat the egg yolk with a little water and brush the biscuits with this mix, sprinkle with the dicedginger and bake in the centre of the oven for 15 mins. Remove from the baking tray with a palette knife and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Taken from The Best of Baking, Publ. by Hamlyn in 1979.