Sunflower seed cookies

Have you ever seen a field of sunflowers?  Rows upon rows of bright yellow flowers all turned in the same direction – the direction of the sun.  And towards the end of the day – when the sun sets – how these rows upon rows of flowers bend their heads in gratitude as if to say, “thank you God for another beautiful day.” 

I use the sunflower seed oil often in cooking – alternating between coconut oil, corn oil and sunflower oil depending on what I cook.  And then I have a two boxes of sunflower seeds – one those that are salted and roasted and can be eaten while watching your favorite movie and another box of peeled sunflower seeds which I use in my porridge or muesli or like you can discover here, in cookies.  I have used them before on top of banana cakes too.  And in the future you will see recipes using them in broths and other desserts. 

One of the main reasons I started using sunflower seeds was because of the vitamin E they contain which is supposed to be good for the skin and hair.  I do not use any sorts of cream on my face – instead I try to use natural oils and foods.  And almost every commercial cream contains Vitamin E – so it makes sense to then incorporate these seeds in my diet.  I  just wish they had Vitamin D since they are pointing to the sun the whole day – then that would also be taken care of.

Preparation Time:

Makes: 60

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter

½ cup raw sugar

½ cup brown sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 and 1/3^rd cups white flour

¼ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

3 cups rolled oats

¾ cup sunflower seed kernels

½ cup wheat germ

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.  
2. Cream the butter together with the raw sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.   
3. Beat in the eggs and the vanilla.  
4. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda and stir into the creamed mixture.   
5. Fold in the oats, sunflower seed kernels and the wheat germ.   
6. Place teaspoonfuls of the batter, two inches apart, on a greased baking sheet.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.  Cool on a rack.

Oat Cookies

Several years back, before we were even married, my husband bought one of those ready-made cone ice-creams and was eating it.  Some of these ice-creams have some chocolate hidden at the bottom of the cone which is crunchy.  So he was coming towards the end of the cone and had this nice crunchy feel when he reached the end of the cone and realized his ice cream was vanilla and they usually never have this chocolate at the end.  So he looked at it closer and found that it was a frozen cockroach.  This is when his phobia with cone ice creams started.  He can never eat a cone ice cream without looking at it continually, especially when it reaches the biscuit part.

So yesterday was one of those beautiful spring evenings where we went for a walk in the city and on the way bought our first ice cream cones of the season.  There were a couple of new flavours this season, but I opted for my favourite – pistachio.  My husband chose his favourite which is yoghurt with berries and of course was conscious of what he eating because of the episode mentioned above.  My son selected all flavours with the word “chocolate” in them and my daughter went for strawberry.  I am not sure whether she opted for the flavour or for the fact that it was the only pink ice cream.  Then of the way back we counterbalanced the cold with some warm fries – a perfect Belgian spring weekend.

I had some Oat Germ in the cupboard and wanted to include in the below recipe.  So instead of 75 grams of oats, I took only 50 grams and substituted 25 grams of oat germ in the recipe.  The cookies had more of a texture with this and the children loved it.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Serves: 24 cookies

Ingredients:

50 grams honey

125 grams unsalted butter

100 grams castor sugar

75 grams oats

50 grams desiccated coconut

100 grams flour

2 teaspoons soda bicarbonate

Method:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl except the sugar.  
2. Melt the honey and butter together in a small pan.  Cool slightly and then add to the dry ingredients and mix well.  
3. Add sugar to this now and mix.  
4. Form ½” diameter balls and place on a dry greased tray and flatten a bit before baking.  
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees C for 15 minutes.  
6. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack before serving or storing in air tight containers.

Tip:  When melting the honey and butter mixture, do not allow the liquid to become very hot.  If this is added to the dry ingredients when it is hot, the biscuits may not spread when they are being baked and may be rather tough.

Semolina Biscuits

 I used to make biscuits previously, but never owned a biscuit cutter set.  I used to always use a sharp steel glass to cut out the shapes - always round.  Then one day I was browsing some cooking books with my daughter, and we came across some rather attractive pictures of biscuits in different shapes and decorations.  My daughter wanted to know how we could get such accurate shapes - I then educated her on the concept of biscuit cutters.  The next weekend when we went shopping, she made sure I had cookie or biscuit cutters included in the shopping list.  Oh - and she loves to choose the shapes for the cookies.  And the more shapes the cookies have, the better - she tastes all the shapes and deducts that they taste the same, but the shapes make a difference.  For example the hearts are better than the stars and the Christmas tress are better than the flower.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Serves 24

Ingredients:

320 grams all purpose flour

250 grams soft wheat semolina

Pinch of salt

200 grams castor sugar

250 grams unsalted butter

2 eggs

150 grams Macedoine of fruits


Method:

1. Mix the flour, semolina, salt and sugar in a bowl.   
2. Soften the butter and mix with the dry ingredients.   
3. Add the beaten eggs gradually until the mixture forms a rough lump.  
4. Turn this mixture onto a floured board and knead it till a smooth dough is formed.   
5. Add the macedoine.  Try not to add any water, but if needed add a few drops of milk.   
6. Roll out dough as thin as 1.25 millimetres and cut it into different shapes.   
7. Lift these into an greased baking tray and bake at 180 degrees C for 15 minutes.