Spice cookies

Not another brownie recipe!

Oops, I did again... went 3 weeks with no recipes. Not even a valid excuse. Anyoo, as planned I tried a dessert recipe. These cookies, unlike most of the food in Jerusalem are pretty much Germanic, albeit not German Jewish. Apparently they're derived from the eats brought by Protestant Germans settling in the Holy Land in the 19th century. As you can see, they do have that "kuchen" appearance.

To make about 18 cookies:

125 grs raisins
a cup of brandy (I used rum instead)
240 grs flour
2 tbsps cocoa
60 grs dark chocolate, coarsely grated
1 tbsp baking soda
1 tbsp baking powder
1 egg
butter and oil
125 grs sugar
1 tbsp vanilla

Soak the raisins in rum. Mix together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and chocolate (I actually recommend using more than I did). In a different bowl, beat the butter, oil, sugar and vanilla, then add the egg, still beating. Add the dry ingredients, then the raisins and a bit of the rum. Mix everything and knead into little spheres. Leave in the fridge for about one hour, then place on a baking tray covered by a baking sheet and bake at 190 C for 15-20 minutes (make sure the cookies are separate enough or they'll stick to one another!)

These came out decently. They make a pleasant dessert, and while they look very much like brownies, the rum and raisins give them a new twist. There's also a glaze using lemon and orange zest that probably makes them more interesting, but zest is one of those things I don't do. But this might explain why they're called spice cookies but aren't well, spicy or spiced up.

Just, next time I might a) bake them slightly less than I did b) put more chocolate, they could do with more chocolateyness (but you can never overdo chocolateney ness, says I).