The Good Ol’ Days
This is a recipe my mom used to make when I was little and I’ve always new that whenever Christmas was near, my favorite cookies’ smell would fill the air.
It was times, when there weren’t that many cookies in the store, 2-3 kinds and people used to rely on their cooking skill and recipes to satisfy their sweet tooth. Recipes were furiously kept secret and cookies had more than deliciously tasteful value. They were like currency! People used them to “bribe” other people in doing them favors 🙂

It was customary to bring something sweet whenever you go to the doctors for example, and the better the cookies, the better care you get.
It was expensive and time consuming way of making things, but perhaps people appreciated them more.

I’ve never made the cookies myself before,but I wanted my kids to remember them as something their grandmother makes, something that is warming you up your soul as well as your mouth.

Рецептата и на български, с благодарности към Мария, че е положила толкова труд да обясни стъпка по стъпка как правя тези бисквитки и на български, и освен това е предложила много нови идеи за украса!  

The( original) Bears:

The journey of a recipe’s remaking
So I started.
Now, here is a time to mention that although my father has always been fit, he ate a lot! And I mean A LOT! So, I remember my mom telling me, she used to make cookies with 4 lbs of honey and I decided, since I am going to give away some for Christmas, to do the same- knead dough with 4 lbs honey.

Boy…was I in for a surprise.
My mom, as much as I love her, was never “the scientific ” type of cook. For her flour was always” on demand” or ” as much as the dough should be soft”.
My whole being is rioting against this unfairness in her cooking notebook! So, every time I try a recipe she wrote down, I measure…and measure…then sift…then measure some more, then try…and try again and at some point I have the called amount and I write it down victoriously in her notebook :-).

Well, this recipe was indeed like the others- flour on demand. So, I started and finally I got the correct amount- 5 cups. But…what she missed to mention is that 4 times the original dose is like 8 lbs of dough!
I started mixing and no surprise, I ended up with so much dough, I had to make couple of different kinds of cookies with it and I still have a quarter left in the freezer ( how the latter would turn out I’ll let you know in a couple of weeks).

The coconut porcupines:

The RECIPE
So, here is the recipe for one dose:
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup honey( liquid texture, so warm it up a little bit)
2 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp ground cloves
1 tbsp ginger
1 tbsp nutmeg
2 tbsp cocoa
5 cups of flour ( have at least 1 more for the rolling out to sift on your working surface)

#If you are going to make the bear kind you are going to need a bag of M&M’s.
# If you are going to make the chocolate hearts kind you are going to need a jar of strawberry jam and 2 cups of melted chocolate with 2 tbsp vegetable oil in it.
# If you are going to make the porcupines, you’ll need 1/2 cup chocolate and some grated coconut.
# If you are going to make the icing type cookies, you’ll need some colored sugar sprinkles and a bag of royal icing.

Directions:
Preheat the oven at 350F.
Mix the sugar and eggs ( room temperature) until they are fluffy, then add the honey and vegetable oil. In a separate bowl sift together the flour ( except the one cup you’ve set aside for the rolling out), baking soda, cocoa and spices.

Combine both mixtures together and knead the dough until it is very soft but it doesn’t stick to your hands. Have in mind that all these types of cookies are a little bit sticky anyway, so if you are able to roll out the dough with flour on the surface, then you definitely can start cutting them, you don’t need more flour.

Cut the desired shape then place in a pan on a piece of parchment/baking paper. Have in mind that the cut shapes have to have at least an inch around them, because they rise while baking.

Bake on 350F until golden brown ( about 20 min). Take them out and let them rest for 2 min in the pan, then place them with a spatula on a baking rack to cool down. When completely cool you can decorate.

*Very important note*: Immediately after baking these cookies are soft, then they become very, very hard! You have to decorate them, place them in a box or just cover them with foil and let them rest for a couple of days to become soft again! The longer you leave them to rest, the softer they become and the better the taste.
Enjoy!

If you want to check out the recipe in Bulgarian, click here.

The Royal icing honey spice cookies:

The chocolate hearts with strawberry jam: