Orange Flower Pecan Nut Chocolate Cookies

Orange Flower Pecan Nut Chocolate Cookies

I wonder what they mean by holidays since I always find myself needing another when I return from one - with all that extra laundry, smelly luggages, backlog of household chores, grocery shopping, full email boxes etc to deal with.

Not to forget the need to start on another diet. We always eat too much when we travel.

While waiting to put everything in order, I baked a batch of Orange Flower Pecan Nut Chocolate Cookies this afternoon. One for me and the rest for the kids, including those who would be coming on Sunday for lunch. We'll be 24 that day, once again I wish I had a big fridge.

This batch was baked in a tartlet pan

Orange Flower Pecan Nut Chocolate Cookies :

250g Butter

250g Dark or milk Chocolate (roughly chopped)

50g Sugar

100g Brown Sugar

2 Tbsp Grand Marnier

1-2 Tsp Orange flower essence

300g Self-raising Flour

50g Pecan nuts (roughly chopped)

A pinch of Salt

Melt the butter and chocolate gently in the microwave and leave aside to cool.

Beat in the sugars till the mixture is fluffy.

Add the alcohol and flower essence.

Stir in the flour and salt followed by the nuts.

Chill for 20 minutes in the fridge.

In the meantime, heat the oven to 180°C.

Bake the cookies for 15 minutes, taking care to keep them apart from each other as they will spread during the baking.

Meanwhile I am quite pleased with myself because I've finally (more or less) figured out how to play the recorder. I've my childhood Yamaha plastic instrument with me (yes, it's an antique now) and I've always been stuck when I had to do sharps and high notes. But last night I decided to give it another go and found myself using the techniques that I've learnt from my flute lessons, opening and closing holes in degrees, creating the sound in my mind before I blew, adding or removing pressure when blowing etc - and it worked! I can finally play Corelli's Sonata in A minor (1st Movement) on both the recorder and the flute. I deserve another chocolate cookie for that.