HISTORY

Cookies, which we enjoy today as sweets, were a way of easily preserving cereal cakes and conveniently transporting them when heated. Marcus Gavius Apicius (25 B.C.-37 A.D.) in his “De re coquinaria” (V-1,3) describes how to make milk porridge, starting by breaking three flour biscuits in a saucepan. Until well into the 19th century, it was part of the seafood or appeared in cookery recipes as a substitute or equivalent to bread; it was not until the 19th century with the industrial revolution that it took on the character of a sweet or sweet treat that it has today.

Ingredients

300 g of flour; 125 g of sugar; 75 g of butter; 40 ml of mineral water; 40 ml of Andalusian sugar cane molasses; 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder; 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda.

Method

Place the flour, cinnamon and bicarbonate in a bowl, mix and set aside. Make a syrup for the biscuit dough by placing the water, the Andalusian sugar cane molasses and the sugar in a saucepan. When it starts to boil, remove from the heat and add the diced butter, stirring well until it binds completely and start adding the dry ingredients.
First pour in half of the flour mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. When it is almost incorporated, add the other half little by little and continue stirring. When its texture cannot be worked in the bowl, return it to the table and start kneading with your hands until you obtain a homogeneous ball that does not stick to your hands.
When you have finished kneading, wrap the dough in cling film and leave it to rest in the fridge overnight.
When you are going to make the biscuits, preheat the oven to 180º C, take the dough out of the fridge, beat it with a rolling pin and, when you see that the dough is malleable, cut a piece and stretch it between two pieces of baking paper until it is about 3 or 4 ml thick. Use molds (cookie cutters) to obtain biscuits of the desired size and shape, and bake in the oven with greaseproof paper for 10 to 12 minutes depending on the strength of the oven. Take out and leave to cool. It is advisable to make small holes or incisions with a toothpick to ensure even baking.