The Teaspoon: Apple Cider Cookies

by Diana

January is always victimised as a somehow slightly dull month, compared to its predecessor, festive December, the soul of the party. It’s hard to embrace an urban winter without the abundant fairy lights, the ongoing carols soundtracking the busy commute, the decorated (and murdered) Christmas trees and the pre-new-year-resolution food feasts.

I miss how lockdown gave us thematic weekends to keep us going during those toughest months and I am determined to keep alive the idea of celebrating the every day, reviving traditions and discovering new ones to hold on to and make our lives reacher and more nurtured even though popular December is not here to give us permission to do so.

Continuing with the blog is always part of my list of intentions. As Christians we celebrate epiphany, without the traditional kings cake though, but want to also mark wassailing as a tradition that fosters gratitude to nature, singing and blessings the trees (around the playground at least) hoping for good health and abundant shade in the summer. Hopefully we won’t go too deep into hell when embracing pagan rituals. We are marking it with a flask filled with mulled cider and warmly packed apple cider cookies, to recover from running around our tiny hyper toddler.

Have a happy 2022!

Ingredients

(Yield 20 cookies)

180g self-raising flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 tsp salt in flakes

115g soften butter

50g granulated sugar

80g brown sugar

1 small egg

30 ml apple cider

1 small apple, peeled and finely diced

Directions

Preheat the oven to 175C/375F. Line a baking try with parchment paper and set aside.

In a bowl combine the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl use an electric mixer to cream the butter and sugars for 1-2 minutes. Add the egg and cider and mix for 1 more minute. Add the dry ingredients until everything is well-combined and fold in the diced apple.

Use a spoon to scoop the cookies, be mindful they expand in the oven so leave approximately 5 cm between each one.

Bake in the preheated oven for 12 minutes and until the edges are golden.

Allow them to cool down completely before storing them. Enjoy!