As all my Hive and RL friends know, I have not baked for a long while.
Firstly Covid came, and it was just three of us in the home; no visitors popping by for a cup of tea!
Hubby is a type 1 diabetic so cannot eat too many sweet cookies, in fact, should not eat any!
However, as a type 1 diabetic - on insulin - he often has a sugar low, and then is allowed to tuck into those cookies which helps him come back to earth!
Our son came back from Russia after their borders opened following Covid lockdowns, but he's not a cookie lover. Mom Lily used to love baking but always ate like a bird, and I was also watching my waistline.
I believe although lockdown was necessary to curb Covid, being cooped up at home was not good for our general well-being, both physically and mentally.
I saw many people whose waistlines had expanded a little too much and many more having problems with stress!
Baking still was not on my agenda once lockdown ended, as Mom became partially immobile after her ankle fracture, and nursing duties took up much of my time for just under a year, not to speak of the final month when Mom was gravely ill.
Over the years, Mom however taught me many baking tricks from yesteryear, and I will share a little of those with my Silver friends today.
So what does an old-fashioned cotton reel have to do with baking?
Of course, it's the perfect tool for flattening balls of cookie dough as one would do with a fork.
When the dough has no crunchie bits like this recipe, it makes a really pretty pattern on top, but these still came out nicely.
Crunchie Peanut Butter Cookies filled with Oats, Coconut, Corn Flakes, Brown Sugar, Butter, Peanut Butter (naturally), and Flour (of course)!
These are really delicious and way more wholesome than rich chocolate brownies for example!
Ask any South African what goes best with a cup of coffee in the morning, and the answer will be Rusks, and of course, one has to dunk it in the coffee unless you want to pay a visit to the dentist, as they're hard!
What is a Rusk?
A rusk is almost like Biscotti, but not as sweet. My rusks are filled with Bran, Oats, Flax Seeds (any seeds that I can find in the pantry), Currants (Raisins or Sultanas are also good).
It is quite a long process, as one first bakes what is almost like a currant cake/ bread, and cut it into fingers the following day.
Packed into a cookie tray and dried out in the oven at a very low temperature for a good couple of hours till the rusks are completely dry.
One last trick that Mom did not teach me as she made everything from scratch, is to buy those ready-to-bake pizzas from the grocer, add extra fillings on top, load it with more cheese, and voila, you have a fake homemade pizza, much nicer than takeaway pizzas!
I will dig into my kitchen cupboards for some of the old baking implements I still have, and show you how it was done in the kitchens of days gone by!
AND...I'd love to see if any of you still have some of those in your cupboards; it would be great to see what kitchen tricks you learned from your Grandma or your Mother.
For now it's...
BON APPETIT TO ALL MY SILVERY FRIENDS!
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