a.k.a “There’s nothing fun in the pantry and we don’t have
any butter but hey these are pretty good!” cookies.
Dairy-free and impossibly simple to prepare, they’re pillowy but chewy
— more pfeffernusse than anything else —
and what they lack in exciting mix-ins, they make up for with
malty molasses and toothsome whole-wheat flour.
Let’s just say I’ve made two batches in as many days and they don’t last long.

{ Based very loosely on Ambitious Kitchen’s recipe }

Gather:
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground clove

1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white or caster sugar
2 eggs
4 tbsp olive oil¹
2 tbsp molasses
2 tsp vanilla

Then:

1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF/190ºC.
2. Put all the dry ingredients (minus the sugars) in a medium-sized bowl, mix with a fork and set aside.
3. Put all the wet ingredients (plus the sugars) in the bowl of your stand mixer, and stir on a medium speed until the mixture starts to turn pale (2–3 minutes).
4. Turn down your mixer to the slowest speed and gradually add in the dry ingredients until fully incorporated.²
5. That’s it! Spoon the dough/batter onto a baking sheet, leaving plenty of room for oven-spread.
6. Bake for around 8 minutes — until the whole surface of each cookie is dry and the edges are starting to brown.
7. Continue in batches until you’re all done, transferring the finished cookies to a cooling rack as you go.
8. Serve with… whatever tea or coffee you’ve got in the pantry, plus or minus milk depending on what’s in the fridge 😉
   
   

Notes:
¹ As light or full-flavoured as you have lying around and/or depending on how much you want to taste it in the finished product.
² It should be a stiff batter, rather than a “dough”. You can add a touch more flour if you want, but remember that a) you want these to spread in the oven, and b) the whole-wheat flour will continue to soak up moisture as it sits.