If you listen hard you will hear the unromantic din of cash
registers chi-chinging all over the world. That’s the sound of big business
cashing in on the scurry to live up to romantic expectations - your own, or
someone else’s - on February 14th.
Valentine’s Day is quite possibly the least romantic day of the year. If you are someone’s special
someone, hopefully you’ll already know it - and show it - in a thousand tiny
ways throughout the year. You will be least
in need of a day of ersatz romance.
Love is bigger than just romantic love. It’s in the everyday things: in the sticky pre-licked sweet my tiniest niece presses into my hand when I know she really, really, really wants it for herself; it’s in the email/card/text/call that says between the lines “Hey, I was thinking of you”. It’s in making the dinner/walking the dog/cleaning the bathroom/rescuing the laundry from a sudden rain shower without having to be asked. It’s in accepting the irritating imperfections right along with the good qualities that are so much easier to love, whether you are family, friend, or lover.
For 40 - 50 ‘Just
because...’ cookies (depending on size) you will need...
... to pre-heat the oven to 160°C
... to pre-heat the oven to 160°C
200g butter (at room
temperature)
100g icing sugar
1 tablespoon orange zest
250g plain flour
50g cocoa powder, sifted
to remove any lumps
a small pinch of fine
table salt
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon instant coffee
dissolved in 1 teaspoon of boiling water
To decorate you will need
chocolate and sprinkles. I’m not going to be too prescriptive about this bit of
the recipe – this is the ‘pimp my cookie’
bit, where you get to customise these cookies for those lucky people who are loved
by you, but I’ll tell you what I did.
1.
First
make the cookies - Place the butter, icing sugar and orange zest in a mixing
bowl or stand mixer and beat together until fluffy and lighter in colour.
2.
Mix
together the flour, cocoa powder and salt and add to the butter mixture about a
third at a time, beating until well combined. Finally, add the egg yolk and
dissolved coffee and mix until the ingredients come together in a ball.
3.
Turn
onto a lightly floured work surface and roll out to a thickness of about 3mm.
Using cookie cutters, cut into shapes – I’ve chosen hearts in a variety of
sizes. Any leftovers can be squashed into a ball and re-rolled.
4.
Place
on a baking tray and bake in the pre-heated oven for 10 minutes. When the
cooking time has elapsed, remove from the oven and leave to cool on the baking
tray for about 3 minutes before transferring carefully to a cooling rack. When
completely cold, decorate as desired.
Here’s what I did:
5.
I
melted 100g of good quality white chocolate in a small Ziploc freezer bag by
removing all the air, sealing it and putting it in a bowl of hot water. In
another Ziploc bag, I placed 50g good quality dark chocolate together with 50g
good quality milk chocolate and melted it in the bowl of hot water. This gives
a subtle two-tone, two-flavour effect.
6.
While
the chocolate was melting, I prepared a variety of sprinkles: chopped dried sour
cherries, chopped dried apricots, chopped toasted hazelnuts, Maldon sea salt
crystals. Use your imagination - the world is your sprinkle :)
7.
When the chocolate had melted, I snipped a tiny corner off each bag, drizzling chocolate directly onto the
cookies.
8.
While
the chocolate was still melted I sprinkled my chosen toppings onto the cookies.
 |
| Just because... you deserve a treat! |
When the cookies have completely set, make yourself a cuppa and taste-test a couple of these treats before packaging them prettily and distributing them to your loved ones, just because...
 |
| Just because... you are salt of the earth! |
 |
| Just because... xxx |