Tuesday 16 April 2013

Condensed milk cookies

Stem ginger cookies with lemon icing
Stem ginger cookies with lemon icing

Having spent all morning lazing in bed and reading, I decided that I should do something a bit more productive with my Sunday afternoon. Unusually, I didn’t feel like faffing around with fancy decorative icing, so I decided to make some simple biscuits for EHH to take into his work. I had a flick through my recipe files and cook books, but wasn’t feeling particularly inspired so I decided to go with one of my tried-and-tested recipes.



I call these “condensed milk cookies” – they came from Sainsbury’s magazine ages ago, which called them “soft, American-style cookies”. They are amazing – a bit like “Millie’s Cookies” – with a crisp outside and soft, chewy centre. The magazine gave 6 variations – I made three types this weekend: lemon and ginger, oats and honey, and cherry and almond, with slight variations on the magazine’s recipes. I always feel the need to make more than one batch of these – once you’ve opened the tin of condensed milk, it seems a waste not to! However, I have got about half a tin left, so I may need to make some more later in the week!



Cherry and almond cookies


Makes 12
Ingredients

    Cherry and almond cookies
  1. 125g soft unsalted butter
  2. 125g caster sugar
  3. 2 tblsp condensed milk
  4. 175g self-raising flour
    Pinch of salt
  5. 75g glace cherries, chopped finely
  6. 2 tblsp flaked almonds
  7. 1 tsp almond essence
  8. 75g icing sugar

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 150C.
  2. Using an electric/stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
  3. Beat in the condensed milk and the almond essence.
  4. Add the flour and a pinch of salt and mix.
  5. Stir in the cherries.
  6. Roll into 12 walnut sized balls and space at least 5cm apart on 2 baking trays.
  7. Flatten them slightly with the back of a spoon.
  8. Scatter each cookie with flaked almonds.
  9. Bake for about 25 minutes or until firm at the edges but still soft in the middle.
  10. Leave to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
  11. Once cool, drizzle with icing made up from the icing sugar and 1 tblsp water (optional).



Alternatives:
Ginger and Lemon

  • For Step 3: Omit almond essence.
  • For Step 5: Omit cherries. Instead, add 2 tsp ground ginger, zest of one lemon and 75g of finely chopped crystallised or stem ginger.
  • Omit Step 8.
  • For Step 11, drizzle with icing made from 75g icing sugar with 1 tblsp lemon juice. 
 


Oats and honey

    3 oat and honey chewy cookies
  • For Step 3: Use 1 tblsp of honey and 1 tblsp condensed milk. Omit almond essence.
  • For Step 5: Omit cherries. Instead, add 75g oats.
  • For Step 8: Drizzle each cookie with honey and scatter with oats.
  • Omit Step 11.

No comments:

Post a Comment