I’d never heard of a Snickerdoodle until a couple of years ago. As soon as I saw the name I did not really care what the cookies tasted like, I had to make them because of the name. “Snickerdoodle” it’s such a silly, wonderful word, like something out of Charlie and the Chocolate factory. It turned out of course that snickerdoodles were completely delicious in their simple cinnamon and sugar charm. Since that first bite a couple of years ago they’ve become a favourite in our cookie jar.

I watched snickerdoodles work their magic today at an afternoon tea too. Little unassuming cookies on a plate, my nephew Oliver sniffed them and said….

“are these cinnamon?”
“they’re called Snickerdoodles…..” I replied, knowing I had him hooked as soon as I mentioned the word.
“Snickerdoodles?” he said as he picked one up, sniffed it again.. and then proceeded to eat it, examining the inside after the first bite.

My niece Jacinta caught the word snickerdoodles, and she was by the plate in a flash saying “Snickerdoodles?” and poked one into her mouth.

There is just something about the word.. it’s impossible not to like a cookie called a snickerdoodle. Who could refuse something so cute sounding? It sounds like something that pixies and fairies should eat in stories.

Most Americans will be familiar with Snickerdoodles I know. Those folk living on different parts of the planet may not have discovered them yet! I’m going to do my best to convince you to make them. There are variations around with shortening in them, but I do urge you to try this all butter version, there is nothing quite like the flavour of butter. Eat a blob of shortening on it’s own, eat a blob of butter on it’s own - see which you prefer.

The recipe makes about 60 cookies, just enough to get our family through the week. If your family is not as greedy as mine and you don’t want to make 60 snickerdoodles all at once, you can make the little balls of dough, freeze the dough in the balls until you are ready to roll them in cinnamon sugar and bake them. Just place them on a tray in the freezer, when frozen transfer them to a sealed bag and then take them out as needed to bake them into their cinnamony, buttery goodness.

All Butter Snickerdoodles

• 2 3/4 cups of flour
• 2 tspns baking powder
• 1/2 tspn salt
• 225g/8oz butter
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 2 large eggs
• plus additional 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tspns ground cinnamon for topping.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F

Line trays with baking parchment and set aside.

Beat together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy

Add in your eggs.

Sift in the dry ingredients and mix well.

Combine your additional 1/4 cup of sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Make walnut sized balls of dough and roll around in the cinnamon and sugar until well coated.

Bake in the oven until the cookies are set in the centre and starting to crack a little bit. These cookies do not brown. They take roughly 10 minutes in the oven. They will fall a little on cooling. Cool on the tray for a few minutes before moving to a rack to cool completely.

These keep well for about a week - well…. potentially.

Simple and delicious - what more could you want from a cookie?

Over the long weekend we had recently, we decided to take a little trip over to Central Otago. Central Otago is renowned for many things in NZ, not least of all pinot noir grape vines, olive trees, apricots, pears, apples, quinces, plums, cider, peaches, cherries, wines and honey. It’s a fabulous area for a foodie like me, but that was not why we went. The world famous Warbirds over Wanaka was on too, and the Clyde Wine and Food festival, oh and a craft festival in Wanaka itself. None of these, however were the reason for our trip. Not even the Perambulator museum or jet boats we spied on the way could sway our resolve to get to our destination.

We traveled more than 4 hours each way (yes it takes that long with a 5 year old that needs to stop every 30 minutes to play) to go to Puzzling World. We decided to take him to puzzling world because he’s wanted to go for SO long and we got tired of him asking .. err I mean we wanted to fulfill his dream!

So after many hours of “are we there yet?” and “I want to go home” and “I feel sick” we arrived in Puzzling World. Isaac’s need to stop regularly was not all bad though, the drive through Central Otago was spectacular - as it always is. This is real life Hobbit Country. Central Otago is where much of the  Lord of the Rings was filmed. If you want to see where little Hobbits adventured, this is where you go.

It’s a harsh alpine countryside, with lakes and rivers that are intense blues and greens. We stopped just outside of Clyde to pick some wild thyme and enjoy the views. These photos are not touched up at all. The sky is this blue, the river Clyde is that shade of aqua and indigo.

That’s Kit and Isaac picking up bits of quartz in the background while I’m sitting in the thyme with the camera.

The thyme grows all over what would otherwise be barren rocky hills and crags. Just merino sheep and rocks as far as the eye can see.  It’s incredible that this little plant can survive and do so well. Apparently it came to Otago via the gold miners camps and thrived; it’s actually considered a weed. When you walk and crush the thyme underfoot - puffs of the scent rise up, it has a much stronger aroma than your garden thyme.

Little stacks of beehives are scattered all along the hills and the sides of the road to collect a very special honey. Single floral honey, Wild thyme honey. This particular artisan honey won a cuisine award this year. When the thyme is flowering the hills are shaded pink and purple, instead of brown and covered in outcrops of rock.

We weren’t able to stop to buy any honey along the way, because we had to make the most of the opportunity when Isaac was content to travel, so once I got home I ordered a little jar of wild thyme honey to make these crisp cookies with.

Honey and Ginger Lace Cookies

Perfect for dessert- we had these with flambe bananas and icecream at a friends house with dinner.

• 50 grams butter
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 2 good Tblspns honey
• 1/4 cup plain baking flour
• 1/2 tspn ground ginger

Preheat oven to 18C0/350F

Combine sugar, butter and honey in a saucepan, heat until mixture bubbles up. Sift in flour and ginger.

Stir until smooth. Drop in teaspoonfuls on a piece of parchment.  Make sure you leave plenty of room for these to spread and only cook 2 or 3 at a time.

Cook until bubbling all over and starting to go deeper golden around the edges. They will still continue to cook after you have removed them from the oven for a minute or so.

Leave on the tray until they have cooled slightly then pick up the parchment and the cookies and place over a rolling pin to mould - remove when cool. 

If you wish to leave them flat remove from the parchment when almost completely cool and sit on a rack.

Watch these carefully when you cook them - they will burn in an instant. Depending on your oven they will take between 3 and 8 minutes to cook roughly.

Recipe makes roughly 15 cookies - they should be eaten soon after they are made or stored air tight with waxed paper separating each one - they will keep for a day or so stored like this.

These look beautiful and fragile, but they have a tremendous flavour for something so delicate. They pair well with fresh fruit and cream or ice-cream. You can dip half the cookie in chocolate or drizzle a little over the top for something different.

This is a special cookie that takes a little extra time and makes a nice hostess gift.

Oh yes .. and just before I forget - on the way home in the dark with the stars twinkling in the sky we also discovered that there are two new constellations - the leaf blower and the very thin submarine - according to Isaac. We also had a great time at Puzzling World even if we did take the Emergency Exit out of the maze …. Isaac is not letting us forget that one.

I’ve never actually liked Neenish tarts much. I know that’s a strange way to start a recipe that I am sharing with you, but I felt I needed to confess that up front. I have always liked the way they look though. Small single serving tarts half chocolate half white, or half pink and white - or sometimes half pink, half chocolate. They always looked nice sitting in the bakery window displays. However when I bought one I was always disappointed.

Normally dry shortcrust pastry filled with a mock cream and jam. Occasionally I’d try again hoping that it would be better, and I’d strike one that had a condensed milk type filling, which was a moderate improvement on the mock cream, but still nothing to write home about.

I happened upon discussion thread with a person asking for a recipe for Neenish tarts like their mother used to make, the filling they described sounded more like a lemon flavoured pastry cream. That interested me, so I thought I would give something along those lines a go and see what the result was.

Neenish tarts are fairly specific to Australia and New Zealand and I am not sure if they are even known in other parts of the planet. This version is quite delicious, although I think a little fiddly to make. But if you have the time then give it a try, they are a very old fashioned afternoon tea treat that people can’t help but say “Mmmmmmm” over when they have that first bite. You can just picture these on a tiered china cake stand sitting in among the creamy sponge drops, cucumber sandwiches and scones.

Neenish Tarts with Lemon Crème Patisserie

No one is really sure how these originated and where they got their name, there are all kinds of urban legends around them. Including one about a Ruby Neenish - who has vanished into the mists of time - no record of her existing at all. I suspect Ruby Neenish is a little like Spiderman .. just a figment of someone’s imagination. The first recipe for these was published in 1929.

Recipe makes 6  10cm/4 inch tarts.

Pâte sablée (sweet short crust)

This pastry recipe makes a lot more than you will need to make the Neenish tarts. I simply froze the remainder for another day to use for a sweet full sized tart. It will make enough for two full sized tarts with a little left over for six Neenish tarts.

• 250g/9oz butter
• 200g/7oz icing sugar
• pinch of salt
• 500g/just over 1lb of flour
• 4 egg yolks
• 4 Tblspns cold water

You can make this in the food processor or by hand. Cream together the butter sugar and salt, rub or pulse in the egg yolks until the mixture just starts to come together looking like breadcrumbs. Add the cold water. Gently bring together and split pastry into two, forming two disks. Wrap and chill in the fridge for one hour.

You can freeze remaining pastry at this point, you will need roughly 250 grams of the pastry for your Neenish tarts.

When making pastry - it benefits from as little handling as possible. This will keep it flaky and light and reduce shrinkage.

Line your tart pans (I used 10 cm/4 inch tart pans with a removable base) and place in the freezer.

Lemon Crème Patisserie

• 2/3 cup of whole milk
• 1 2 inch piece of vanilla bean
• 1 2 inch long one inch wide piece of lemon rind
• 2 large egg yolks
• 3 Tblspns sugar
• 1 Tblspn cornflour/cornstarch

Pour the milk into a small saucepan, scrape in seeds from the vanilla bean and add the bean and the lemon rind to the milk. Bring to a simmer - remove from the heat.

Whisk the yolks, cornflour and sugar together in a bowl. Very gradually whisk the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Do this a little at a time whisking continuously, you don’t want to cook your yolks.

Add back into the pan again and whisk over a medium heat until the custard thickens. Transfer to a bowl to cool and cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin forming. When you are ready to use your pastry cream, remove the vanilla bean and rind and whisk lightly to remove any lumps. (can be made 2 days ahead)

Assembling your tarts

Preheat your oven to 180C/350F

Put your lined tart pans in the preheated oven for roughly 10-15 minutes. Check half way through cooking and pierce a small hole in each base with a skewer to remove any air from under the tart base. Cook until golden. Cool on a rack in the tins, remove from the tins when cool.

Fill with cooled pastry cream - making sure the top is level and ice with icing of your choice.

I chose to use royal icing for these and it was not a good choice honestly. The pastry cream was moist and consequently the royal icing started to weep after about 20 minutes. If I was doing this again I would most likely use a simple confectioners sugar icing - I suspect it would hold up better.

To ice your Neenish tarts - ice one half first spreading from the centre to the outside - allow to set for 10 minutes or so before icing the other half.

Despite the issues that I had with the icing on these, they were a sweet and light tart that everyone really enjoyed eating. You could also experiment with a mock cream and raspberry jam filling or perhaps try different flavourings for your pastry cream, a rum version of these is quite common also.

If you are having a last minute tea shower like my imaginary friend Ruby Neenish - these are not the tarts to make since they require cooling in between stages. But if you have a little time on your hands and would like to have an old fashioned afternoon tea treat, then these are just the ticket!

I can see a lot of slightly puzzled looks out there from people over the title of this, so I’ll set this straight right from the start

I’m not talking about any of these.

I’m talking about Afghan biscuits - no, not the US interpretation of biscuits - cookies. Afghan cookies which do not come from Afghanistan, but from New Zealand. The origins of the name are lost to time, although this recipe has appeared in the Edmonds Cookbook for many years.

Now that we have that cleared up, how about a recipe for a melt in the mouth chocolate cookie which has a nice crunch to it?

These were my favourite biscuits as a child; when I opened my lunch box and saw one I was always really pleased. There was one downside to Afghans, at least from a child’s perspective. There was the small matter of having a walnut on top which I had to dispose of without anyone seeing.

My mother eventually gave up putting walnuts on the top because I would come along and take a biscuit and remove the walnut or chew it and spit it out. Of course now I like walnuts but in homage to my childhood I put a different topping on them for all the walnut hating children out there.

These biscuits are a national favourite, they’re in bakeries, cafes, children’s lunch boxes and seen at school fêtes all over the place, usually with a walnut on top. These are great everyday baking. Don’t let the simplicity of the recipe fool you, these are fantastic biscuits. Things do not have to be complex to be just plain good. I have not changed the recipe at all, it’s perfect as it is.

Afghan Biscuits

Makes 30 - from the Edmonds Cookbook

• 200 grams/7 oz of butter
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 1/4 cups of flour
• 1/4 cup of cocoa
• 2 cups of cornflakes

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift flour and cocoa and stir into the butter and sugar mixture. Fold in cornflakes.

NB: I have never been able to fold these in, the mixture is not folding consistency - a better description might be mix in as gently as you can without breaking the cornflakes into tiny crumbs.

Spoon large teaspoonfuls on to a parchment lined or greased tray. Bake at  180C/350F for 15 minutes or until set.

In my oven they do not take as long as 15 minutes. Keep a very close eye on them after 11 minutes, don’t let them get dark around the edges.

When cold ice/frost with a simple chocolate icing made with icing sugar, butter, cocoa, vanilla and hot water. Ganache would tend to make these soft, if you’re eating these on the same day Ganache would be fine. The confectioners sugar icing also makes them lunch box suitable - it’s a little more robust than a buttercream or ganache. Royal icing would be fine too.

Top with a walnut if you want to go with the traditional version or if you have walnut haters around, alternatives work well too.  I used these cute little strawberry millions to top them.

I’ve had Afghans with the addition of chopped dried apricots, walnuts and raisins but honestly I think they are best left as they were intended to be. A simple everyday biscuit to be discovered wrapped in waxed paper in your lunch box or to munch on with a hot drink at the end of the day. Cookie comfort food at it’s best.

These little moon shaped cookies smothered in a coat of frosty looking powdered sugar are just the epitomy of Christmas. I know all my Christmas cookie posts are late, just think of them as posted well in advance for next year.

These little white morsels with their delicate almond flavour are always the first to go when I put a plate of Christmas cookies out. They are best eaten the day they are made, and everyone seems more than happy to make sure there aren’t any left. This is another of the batches of cookies that Leah and I made together on Christmas Eve.

I don’t honestly remember where on the vast internet I found the recipe for these originally. My apologies to the original author, I like to give credit where it’s due. I have adapted it a little since I found the original recipe a little on the dry side, and difficult to shape. There is a bit of a technique to shaping these cookies. Leah was ready to give up after her first one turned out looking more like a deformed sausage, but after a few tries she had the technique down beautifully.

Viennese Crescents

• 1/2 cup of ground almonds
• 1/2 cup of icing sugar (powdered sugar)
• 1/2 cup of softened butter (it’s important that it is soft)
• 1 1/2 tspns vanilla extract
• 1 tspn almond extract
• 1 cup of flour
• 1-2 tspns cold water
• pinch of salt
• Icing sugar for coating

Beat together butter, almonds and icing sugar until just combined

Add in the extracts and mix gently

Add in the flour and salt and mix until the dough starts to come together. Add the water to make a dough that holds together. Do not be tempted to knead the dough it will make the cookies tough.

Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 20-30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F and line a baking tray with parchment.

To shape

Take a piece of dough that is slightly larger than a walnut and roll into a ball. Roll the ball into a log shape putting slightly more pressure on the ends to make the log wider in the middle and narrower at the ends. You do not want to make the logs too narrow on the ends or they will burn. Curve into a crescent shape and place on the tray. Leave them a little room to expand.

Bake for about 10 minutes and remove when light golden on the ends. While they are hot, roll in icing sugar to coat. You can give them another coat of icing sugar if you like when they have cooled slightly.

These elegant little cookies are also called Vanillekipferl. They are common in Germany and Hungary although they originated in Vienna. They look so pretty sitting on a plate, and are really very simple to make. Next time you are having an afternoon tea for “ladies” try making some of these as a different addition to your cookie plate.

Please excuse my un-ironed tablecloth in the pics - it was Christmas Eve after all and I had to help Santa with some stuff.