You’ll always find cookies in Grandma Bella’s kitchen. Three large and decorated glass jars are proudly placed at the kitchen entrance filled with fresh home made cookies. This recipe is for one of my favorite cookies which always bring me back to my childhood. My grandma got the recipe from Mella, the eldest sister of my grandpa (8th out of 9 children)/ Those cookies were probably invented back in the beginning of the 20th century somewhere in South Africa.

A while ago Grandma Bella visited me and we prepared those cookies together – apparently cooking with my grandma in the kitchen and trying to take pictures at the same time isn’t as trivial as it sounds, grandma is like a torpedo in the kitchen and the whole thing took 10 minutes max in which I had to continuously provide ingredients and try to catch up the with her impossible pace.

These cookies turn out crunchy on the outside and soft and cake-like on the inside. They are not too sweet and perfect with a cup of tea.

Prep time: 15 minutes (10 if you are a torpedo grandma)
Baking time: 18-25 minutes for a tray

Ingredients (for 35 chubby cookies)

• 2 cups + 1 tbs white flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 10-12 Majhool dates
• 150 gr soft butter
• 1 cup + a little more fresh non-roasted pecans
• 1/2 cup Demerara sugar
• 2 eggs
• Kellogg’s corn flakes (just a little for coating)

Directions

Take out the butter from the fridge few hours in advance (at least  two hours). Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Pit the dates, chop finely and mix with about 1 tbs of flour, set aside. Finely chop the pecans – my grandma does that by placing the pecans in a plastic bag and crushing them with a hammer or a schnitzel hammer.

Mix flour, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. Add the pecans and dates. Mix the two eggs in a small bowl and add them to the bowl with the flour mixture. Add the soft butter – make sure it is very soft but not liquid! This is critical for the cookies texture. Combine everything and knead with your hands until the dough is a little sticky and starts to leave the bowl. Pack to a ball.

Place some corn flakes in a flat plate and crush it with your hands. Take a small piece of the dough, roll into walnut size balls and flatten it a bit on top of the crushed cornflakes, from both sides. Place the cookies on a tray with baking paper (no need to grease it) and bake for 20 to 25 minutes in a 180 degrees oven. Note that the cookies don’t tend to expand but just rise so they can be placed pretty close together in the tray. Take out the cookies when they brown a little but are still soft. They will harden once cooled down. In my oven it takes 22 minutes to bake the first tray, and the second one takes only 18 minutes (the oven is hotter at this stage).

Comments and suggestions

• Corn flakes. The brand of the corn flakes is critical for this recipe, Kellog’s corn flakes are the exact fit. We tried making them with other types and it is just not right.
• Dates. Try using Majhul dates for this recipe. If you use different type dates you might need to skip the flouring stage of the dates (if your dates are dry), and I would also add some more sugar.
• Butter. The soft butter is essential for the right texture and therefore please don’t forget to take the butter out of the fridge ahead of time. Theoretically you can carefully soften the butter in the microwave but it won’t be exactly the same. You can also raise the amount of butter in the recipe from 150 to 200 gr, you’ll get slightly softer cookies. I didn’t try to make a vegan version of this recipe and therefore I have no idea if that is possible and how to do it. Maybe coconut oil can replace the butter (1 to 1 ratio). If you choose to try it please update in the comments how it turned out!

In short

Pit, chop and flour the dates. Finely chop the pecans. Mix flour, baking powder and sugar. Add the dates and pecans. Mix two eggs and add them to the flour mixture. Add soft butter. Combine and knead with your hands until the dough is a little sticky and leaves the bowl. Crush some Kellog’s corn flakes in a flat plate, take a piece of the dough and roll into wallnut size ball. Flatten on top of the corn flakes on both sides. Place in a tray with a baking paper (non greased) and bake for 20-25 minutes (the second tray will need few minutes less), until the cookies brown a little and are soft to touch.