Mail cookies

Homemade cookies are almost always the tastiest. And people love receiving packages. Combine these two immutable truisms, and what do you get? Why, a hankering to bake the next time you've got 30 minutes and a few hundred calories going spare. It's generally better to ship hard (e.g. biscotti) or chewy (e.g. oatmeal cookies) cookies rather than creamy (e.g. cheesecake bars) or delicate (e.g. madeleines) ones. Packaged in an air-tight bag or container and wrapped in popped popcorn or bubble wrap, the cookies should be good for up to a week in transit. Here's one recipe (adapted from theppk.com) to get your cookie-baking juices and/or salivary glands going.


Chocolate Earl Grey Snickerdoodles


1) Preheat oven to F350/C175. Grease or line 2 baking sheets.
2) Mix 1/6 cup coarse sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon and set aside.
3) Mix 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 2/3 cup sugar, 1/4 cup maple syrup and 3 tbsp milk well. Stir in 2 tsp vanilla extract.
4) Combine 1 2/3 cups flour, 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp coarse salt and tea from 3 Earl Grey bags. Stir into wet mixture.
5) Roll dough into about 24 balls. Flatten slightly into sugar-cinnamon topping. Place on baking sheet sugar side up.
6) Bake for at least 10 minutes, until a bit spread and crackly on top.


Effort involved: if you use the (admittedly as yet untested) recipe above, you don't even have to dig out a cookbook.



Image from: http://www.thefinestwriter.com/blog/tag/odd-job/