Crackle Spice Cookies (oil based)

Independence Day has come and gone but one of the things I have wanted to develop is a good and tasty cookie that’s oil based. So many readers are looking for this rather than butter or margarine that I decided to work on it and of course, you need guinea pigs for this. My siblings (missing my bro Shlom and SIL Dor) Tova, Avi and Diane and my mom made excellent people to test it on. Tova got it on the nose, they’re both chewy in the middle and crispy on the edges. Spot on! That was in fact my aim and the lovely spiciness of the cookies make them really addictive. Avi snuck a couple extra and they were a big hit. Although they may look like they have oatmeal in them, they do not, it’s the crackle look, just sayin’. So it’s my pleasure to share these with you, cookies with a tad less guilt and really yum!

So, preheat the oven to 375 F/190 C and gather your ingredients.

Warning, warning, they do require a lot of oil but you are using a lot of flour proportionately so no worries. Do NOT stint the oil or eggs or they’ll turn out dry and crumbly and what a shame. You get about 40-43 cookies out of this but you get big ones (about 10 cookies per baking sheet) – I use a tablespoon of cookie batter per cookie.

K. You can do this by hand or in a mixer. I chose to go by hand this time but easy peasy in a mixer too. Place your flour, cornstarch (this helps make them chewy, don’t sub it out!) brown sugar, white sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, salt and baking soda in a bowl.

Combine well till incorporated. Now add the eggs and oil.

Mix well till a thick dough forms.

Scoop up tablespoons of dough and form balls (or use a cookie scoop of 1 tablespoon). Place on parchment lined baking sheets. Make sure to leave room for the cookie to spread which they do. Place about 10 balls of dough per cookie sheet. (Okay so this one had 11, all the rest had 10 🙂 ).

Bake 13-15 minutes, keeping an eye on them. If you bake a bit longer, they get quite dark and more crispy. A bit less, lighter and chewier, hence the range of baking time.

Cool on wire racks. Wonderful with Lady Grey tea for a double spice feel!

Crackle Spice Cookies (oil based)

3 cups (375 grams) flour

1/4 cup (30 grams) cornstarch

1 cup (213 grams) dark brown sugar

3/4 cup (150 grams) white sugar

1 teaspoon ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 cups (295 ml) oil

3 eggs

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 F/190 C.

Mix flour, cornstarch, sugars, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and baking soda in a bowl or mixer till fully combined. Add eggs and oil and mix well. The dough will be very thick. Scoop up tablespoons into balls and place 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheet. About 10 balls should fit on your baking sheet. Don’t crowd them since they spread. Bake for 13-15 minutes or till browned. Keep an eye on them so they don’t get too browned. The top gets a sort of crackly look. Cool on wire racks.