Coffee cookies. My ultimate favourite cookie ever. And a reminder of my mother and my childhood in the kitchen. And probably the strongest reminder of my mother’s constant quest for excellence. Which brings me to this writing.

Seeing a coffee cookie, reminds me of her favourite extraction from a song;

♪♪  “Do what you do do well, boy, do what you do do we-ell, give your love and all of your heart and do what you do do well…” ♪

Not to be mistaken with doing something better than someone else, or doing it according to the standards of someone else, but to set your own standards and strive to give and do your own best. To put love into whatever you take on. To go to bed at night, knowing that you gave your best. Whether you’re ironing  a shirt, or writing a book, or playing a tennismatch, or preparing a sandwich, or baking a coffee cookie; the best is, you not comprimising for second best.

I can’t put a coffee cookie in my mouth, be it my own or baked by another hand, without thinking of this philosophy stemming from my childhood and following me to where I am today.  Her coffee cookies had to be perfect in colour and length, the tops had to have perfect little “spikes” and never were they to be flat and fat and run-out in the pan, which of course goes all the way back to the preparation of your dough. Those  cookies, not reaching all of these criteria, would be put aside never to see the cakestand. And that would mean another batch to be prepared to reach the desired quota. To stack the cake stand with pride.

I have not only inherited her recipe, but also her strive for excellence. I have passed it on to my daughters. And from the heart they put into their ordinary and sometimes mundane tasks, I know they’ll pass it on too. Maybe that is why I still enjoy baking these coffee cookies… a reminder, a question to myself: Do I still give all of my heart and all of my love to do what I do well?

Coffee cookies

• 8 cups flour
• 1½ t salt
• 2 cups yellow/brown sugar
• 2 cups golden syrup
• 1.1 lbs butter
• 3½ tablespoons cooking fat
• 2 tablespoons baking soda
• 1 cup strong black coffee at room tempreature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Mix the flour, salt and sugar in a big mixing bowl.
2. Add the butter and fat and work into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Mix the baking soda with a little coffee and add to the flour mixture with the rest of the coffee, the golden syrup and the vanilla extract. Mix together well, cover and leave overnight.
4. The next day: Set the oven to 200ºC.
5. Grease cookie pans and set aside.
6. Using a sausage maker/meat grinder/electrical food grinder/cookie maker with a cookie fitting, push clumps of dough through the cookiemaker, cut to the desired lenghts, about 4-5 cm.
7. The dough can also be rolled, cut into strips of about 4-5 cm, with the tops lightly scrathed with a fork to give it some texture.
8. Place the cookies on a baking sheet and bake for about 12 minutes until golden brown.
9. Leave the cookies on a wire rack to cool.
10. Filling: Mix together 2 heaped tablespoons of butter. Add icing sugar, strong black coffee and vanilla extract and mix until a spreadable, but not runny consistency.
11. Spread one side of a cookie with the icing mixture and cover with a second cookie.
12. The longer the cookies are kept, the more flavourful they become.

Makes about 180 filled cookies

*I post all my recipes for that matter, hoping to inspire people to experiment themselves and play around with their imagination when it comes to detail. I’m never too specific, because I would like to encourage people to cook with their tastebuds and instinct and imagination, tasting along the way, changing direction, altering the recipe, really discovering your own methods rather than just following a recipe to the letter. That way, you develop an instinct for cooking and you really make a recipe your own, otherwise it will always stay someone else’s.

Coming back to the length and shape of these cookies:  When working with a cookie maker of some sort, it comes out a certain thickness and you just have to decide on your desired length, which I suggested be 4-5 cm(1.6-2″), but it can surely be longer or shorter. By pushing the dough thicker out the end, will result in a thicker cookie.

A tip: I also always find it wise to put only a few cookies in the oven as the first batch, whichever cookie I’m baking, so as to decide whether I like the thickness or the length or the shape, or test the temperature of my own oven, the time of baking etc, and then I will go over to the final process of cutting and baking in normal big batches. It prevents huge batches of burnt or uneven baked or failed cookies and lost effort and disappointment.

Suggestion 1: If you are rolling out the dough, I would suggest a thickness of about 4-5 mm.(about 0.2″) Cut them into rectangles of about 50mm x20mm (2″ x 0.8″). Scratch the tops with a fork to give little ruffled edge, like you would get with a sausage maker or cookie maker.

Suggestion 2: On 2 tablespoons of butter, add 1/2 cup icing sugar and mix. Add about 30 ml of black coffee to the icing mixture and mix. Finally add another 1/2 cup icing sugar or until you have a spreadable filling that isn’t runny. Add a teaspoon of vanilla essence and spread between two cookies. Milk can be substituted for the coffee.

A good book on cooking/baking techniques and info on whatever you need to know about cooking and baking is Larousse Gastronomique – a complete encyclopedia. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Larousse-Gastronomique-Greatest-Cookery-Encyclopedia/dp/0600602354

This is an entry for Apples and Thyme, of which Inge at Vanielje kitchen and Jeni at the Passionate palate are the hosts.

An “old” cookie that will always be fashionable. Named after General J.B.M. Hertzog, the prime minister of the Union of South Africa, from 1924 to 1939. It was apparently his favorite cookie.

This recipe comes from Huisgenoot wenresepte 2 by Annette Human, which is perfect as is, gives perfect results every time, year after year. It is probably the only time I’ve exchanged one of my mother’s recipes for a “better” one!

Hertzoggies

Crust:

• 250g flour
• 25g castor sugar
• 10ml baking powder
• 1 ml salt
• 125g butter, at room temperature
• 3 extra large egg yolks
• 15 ml cold water

Filling:

• 75ml apricot jam
• 3 extra large egg whites
• 250g sugar
• 160 g coconut

1. Sift the flour, castor sugar, baking powder and salt together.
2. Crumble in the butter and mix with finger tips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Mix the egg yolks and cold water and add to the butter mixture. Mix to a dough. add a little extra water if it is too dry.
4. Work the dough into a ball, cover and leave aside to rest.
5. Heat the oven to 180 deg. C(350 F)
6. Grease the inside of muffin pans.
7. Roll out the dough, about 1 mm thick. Cut round circles with a cookie cutter, big enough to cover the inside of the muffin pan. Press into muffin pans.
8. Put a teaspoon of jam into each dough crust.
9. Whisk the egg-whites until stiff and gradually add the sugar to whisk to a meringue.
10. Stir in the coconut.
11. Put a tablespoonful of coconut meringue onto each jam-filled dough crust.
12. Bake for 20-25 minutes in the middle of the oven.
13. Leave to cool before removing. store in a cool place.

An entry for “Christmas cookies from around the world” for which Susan at Foodblogga is the host.