PORN FROM THE OVEN: Grandma's fabulous cookies

This is my all time favourite recipe for cookies. I got it from my grandma who's been making them since I can remember. They are one of those things you cannot stop eating once you start and although she always makes them in enormous quantities, she still has to hide them from my ever-hungry grandpa to prevent him from eating them all at once.

I like to make them for Christmas, wrap them up and give them to my friends and family. Then I spend the money I would have otherwise spent on gifts for others on gifts for myself.

They are easy to make and can be stored for quite some time so you can make them in advance.

You will need:

500 g flour

250 g butter (very cold and cut into small pieces)

150 g brown sugar

1 package vanilla sugar (can be substituted with 1 tbsp sugar and 1 tsp vanilla extract)

3 eggs

100 g ground walnuts (or hazelnuts or almonds)

½ package baking powder

½ tsp cinnamon

This makes about 4 trays of cookies.

Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a large bowl. Add the butter. Using your hands rub and crumb them together until there are no large chunks of butter visible.

The flour and butter mixture will look almost like flour or almond meal if you persist long enough.

This can take some time and patience; a food processor will greatly speed up the process so if you have one, now is the time to use it.

When baking these cookies, a food processor is your best friend.

Next add the sugar and eggs and start kneading. Lastly, knead in the nuts. If you want, you can transfer the dough from the bowl to a hard and well floured surface at this point, but I personally really don’t find this necessary.

Baking cookies is all about getting your hands dirty.

Now the dough needs to rest. Cover it with plastic foil and put it in the fridge for about an hour.

Now the fun part begins. You can shape your cookies any way you like. The only thing to keep in mind is that all the cookies on the tray should be about the same thickness.

Bake (depending on the size and thickness) at 190°C for 11 to 17 minutes.