Date & Walnut Cookies

You know it is going to be one of those days when you are up before 7am with the kids in the school holidays. You know it is going to be longer than you want when in order to retain your sanity, you start baking before you would normally be leaving the house for the school run. Before you start yelling at your screen that I am crazy, my theory that over the summer it is cooler earlier in the morning and therefore easier to have the oven on without turning the whole house into a sauna and turning your children into little dragons set to breathe fire at each other and at you.

We made this recipe as we have a lot of dried fruit and nuts in the house – it seems I always put them in the trolley regardless of the quantity that I already own. So if you see me anywhere in the vicinity of a supermarket until the new academic year, please do feel free to remind me that I don’t need anymore of the aforementioned item or even remove them from my trolley unless I can tell you their exact date of use and purpose.

These cookies are ridiculously moreish; I managed to polish of significantly more of them than necessary for a healthy diet (after successfully completing a spin class, but still….) and the batch lasted under 24 hours from when they were made. The kids loved these and enjoyed bashing the walnuts and cutting the dates with scissors. I did also catch Atticus squeezing honey into his mouth directly from the jar. I was so surprised that I admonished him and he was so surprised that he dropped it. Luckily in this instance the jar was plastic. It is also a rather good thing that I wasn’t planning on sharing the honey with anyone outside the family.

Ingredients

• 150g dates
• 100 walnuts
• 25g melted butter/margarine
• 100g demerara sugar
• 100g self raising flour
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1tbsp honey

Method

1. Place greaseproof paper or silicone baking mats onto a couple of baking trays.
2. Using scissors, cut the dates into small pieces.
3. Using a pestle and mortar or a rolling pin gently bash the walnuts into small pieces.
4. Crack the egg into a small cup or bowl and gently beat it.
5. Place all the ingredients apart from the flour into a bowl
6. Sift in the flour and mix until fully combined.
7. Take tbsp. of the mixture and either roll into balls (beware it is sticky!) or just dollop onto the baking tray.
8. Depending on the size of your cookies, you will have between 12 and 15.
9. Place in the oven for 10-12 minutes until golden.
10. Leave on the tray to cool for a couple of minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
11. Scoff the lot with or without the kids!