I don’t normally bake because somehow the cakes or cookies never turn out as expected. #4 was feeling very festive and suggested we bake some Chinese New Year cookies. I flipped through our cookbooks and found a very simple recipe for almond cookies. My favourite! One of my aunts used to make the best melt-in-your-mouth, fragrant almond cookies, and even though she has gotten old and stopped making them since I was a teen, I still remember them fondly. I envisioned smelling the aroma of freshly baked almond cookies and agreed to bake with #4. Kate wanted in on the action and helped us to mix the ingredients.
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| “Can this be eaten?” |
The recipe was really, really simple, with the steps being “Mix ingredients xyz together, add in the oil, roll into balls and bake.” That’s it.
Somehow, instead of being melt-in-your-mouth cookies, ours turned out to be crunchy cookies that were hardly fragrant.
Why? Why???
Oh well. The consoling part was that the cookies actually looked decent. The older girls came back from school and commented, “Hey mum, you baked? Wow! Looks professional. Like the real thing. Are you sure you didn’t have any help from Auntie C?” But after they tasted it, they gave me a grin, patted me on the shoulder and said, “It’s ok, mum. Good try.”
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| Cookie thief |
The younger kids didn’t know how almond cookies are supposed to be and said they were really yummy.
And Kate?
She was trying hard to decide if they were worth the calories.
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| “Hmm, let me think…” |
We ended up with 6 racks of cookies because I was being ambitious and doubled the batch. The girls brought the cookies to school to share with their friends and luckily they all said it was super yummy. Great. Their classmates can have a free flow supply of crunchy almond cookies for recess this Chinese New Year.