Cooking: Old School Recipes

I know that there has been a back to basics movement and people are seeking out classic recipes and I'm happy to tag along on that train. So I have this cook book that I remember using for pikelet recipes when I was about 9 years old and it's one of those fundraiser stylie cookbooks from the Yallambee Activity Centre in Deniliquin (near where my Aunty Colleen and Uncle Mike live).

I used to love makeing pikelets and one afternoon after school around about grade 5 I invited back some of the cool girls from school to my place. Mum wasn't home and I thought it would be a great idea to make pikelets. It must have been halloween or st pats day because we made them green. So I'm cooking away and being a smartarse and I say to one of the girls 'You have to put the handle of the pan in because it's dangerous when it sticks out, a little kid might grab it' and I smack the handle of the frypan and it spins around and collects this giant bowl of green pikelet mixture and flings it across the kitchen and we dissolve into fits of panicked laughter. At that exact moment my Mum walked in and I remember knowing that I was in the shit, probably not for making a mess because my Mum loved me being creative, but for cooking when she wasn't home (which was dangerous).

So enough of my tangenting. The point of my post is that I made these Orange Cookies. They're very tasty, although not quite orangey enough for my liking and they're very light, almost cakey. The delicious orange icing saves the day though.



The recipe is as follows incase you feel the urge.

2.5 cups plain flour
Pinch Salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup soft butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 dessertspoon orange rind
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Additional icing sugar and orange juice for icing

Mix butter and sugar, add eggs and rind and beat until creamy. Stir in the flour, bakign powder and salt alternately with the orange juice. Lastly add chopped nuts. Drop teaspoonfulls about two inches apart onto a greased tray and bake until golden for about 11-13 mins at 200 degrees celcius. When cold frost with orange icing (made my mixing pure icing sugar with orange juice until a spreading consistancy is reached).