DELICIOUS BITES

1 Dec 2025

Do you remember when I had a glut of pumpkin puree and was looking for ways to bake with it? I found a recipe for pumpkin snickerdoodles on the Ambitious Kitchen blog and I was intrigued because I had no idea what a snickerdoodle was.

I asked the internet and according to Wikipedia, snickerdoodles are 'a type of cookie made with flour, fat, sugar, and salt, and rolled in cinnamon sugar. Eggs may also sometimes be used as an ingredient, with cream of tartar and baking soda added to leaven the dough'.

That sounded okay and I was sure I had all the ingredients I needed including the cream of tartar. I looked for the cream of tartar but couldn't find it, so instead I used baking powder. Once I'd made the cookie dough I found the cream of tartar lurking in the back of the cupboard.

Of course I took some other liberties with the recipe. In general I find US recipes very sweet so I reduced the quantity of sugar. I went away for the weekend, so before I left I portioned out the dough and froze the cookies, then baked half the batch when I came home. Rather than cinnamon sugar I rolled the cookies in raw sugar for extra crunch and omitted the cinnamon because I wanted gently spiced cookies.

Here's the recipe for you which makes 15 cookies. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.

Brown butter pumpkin snickerdoodles
Ingredients
60g pumpkin puree

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice or 1 tsp cinnamon/½ tsp ginger and ¼ tsp each of nutmeg and mixed spice

113g unsalted butter, cubed
55g brown sugar
70g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg white
180g plain flour
1 tsp cream of tartar or baking powder
½ tsp bicarb soda
¼ tsp seasalt flakes

Rolling
30g raw sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)

Method
Place the pumpkin puree in a small saucepen with the spices and cook for 1-2 minutes over medium heat. This helps to dry out some of the excess moisture from the puree and bloom the spices. Let the pumpkin cool while you brown the butter.

To brown the butter, place it in a saucepan over medium heat. The butter will begin to foam. Make sure you whisk constantly during this process. After a couple of minutes, the butter will begin to crackle and foam, and then brown on the bottom of the saucepan; continue to whisk and remove from heat as soon as the butter begins to brown and give off a nutty aroma.

Immediately transfer the butter to a bowl to prevent burning (make sure you scrape all of it out of the pan - every last drop!). Set aside to cool for 10 minutes. It is important that your butter cools off. Add the sugars to the cooled brown butter, and mix until well combined and creamy. Beat in the egg white, vanilla and pumpkin puree and mix until well combined.

Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb soda and salt together into a bowl. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the brown butter mixture and mix until just combined. Place plastic wrap over the bowl and refrigerate for a minimum of 1-2 hours or until the mixture is firm.

Preheat the oven to 180⁰C, conventional and line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Weigh out 30g of cookie dough and roll into balls. If dough is too hard to roll into a ball, you may need to let it sit out at room temperature for 10-20 minutes while your oven preheats.

Meanwhile place the sugar and the 2 teaspoons cinnamon (if using) in a small bowl. Roll the dough balls in the cinnamon-sugar mixture, and then place on the baking tray, 2 inches apart.

Place the tray on the centre rack of the preheated 180⁰C conventional oven for 11-14 minutes or until cookies are just slightly golden brown around the edges. Repeat with the other tray. Cool the cookies on the baking tray for 5-10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

So what did I think? The cookies are crunchy on the outside from the raw sugar and soft on the inside. They're gently flavoured with pumpkin and spice and delicious served with a nice cup of tea.

See you all next week with some more baking from my kitchen and just a reminder, that Christmas Week 2025 is just around the corner.

Bye for now,

Jillian

morocco part I

28 Nov 2025

One of my workmates thought I'd enjoy Morocco so I looked into what Morocco offered. After doing some research, I knew I didn't want to travel on my own in Morocco, so I investigated a few tour companies. Due to some awful experiences in the past, I haven't been on an organised tour since 2017. As most companies offered exactly the same itinerary, I booked a 13 day tour of Morocco with Intrepid and crossed my fingers that all would go well.

Wanting to spend as much time as I could in Paris, I flew into Casablanca the day the trip began. The start was a bit rocky. My flight was delayed, then the airport transfer with Intrepid was a little less streamlined than I'd hoped so I arrived 10 minutes late for the Orientation meeting.

The next morning with our bags packed we started the day with a tour of the Hassan II Mosque. I was a bit worried the mosque might be gaudy but instead I found a thoughtfully embellished building made using only the finest materials.

The downstairs ablution area, where each lotus flower is a fountain.

The zellige tilework for which Morocco is famous.

The tile work was just as impressive in black and white.

Some brass details.

Our time in Casablanca was very short so after the tour of the mosque our group of 12 piled onto the bus for the drive to Rabat.

Due to an 'official visit', the monuments we were to see in Rabat were closed, so most of our time was spent exploring the Kasbah des Oudaias.

The imposing gate to the Kasbah.

I managed to get separated from the group in the kasbah, so most of my time was spent scurrying around trying to relocate them so I don't have too many images to share with you. My impressions of the kasbah were of white washed walls and bouganvillea with hints of blue, reminiscent of the Greek Islands.

Inside the kasbah was a garden built in the Andalusian style.

The garden was built in the style of the Alhambra in Seville.

The kasbah looks out over the junction between the river and the Atlantic Ocean.

After lunch in Rabat we drove on to Meknes where we spent the night and we all enjoyed a delicious home cooked dinner of chicken and quince tagine.

Our hotel was in the modern part of Meknes but we were off to visit the Medina with our ultra knowledgeable guide.

Meknes is famous for it's many gates.

Of all the cities in Morocco I visited, Meknes had the smallest number of foreign tourists and it was the least 'curated'.

The famous Bab Mansour gate.

It was equally impressive in black and white

as it was in colour.

We made our way through the streets of the medina.

Meknes was my first proper introduction to Moroccan city life.

Two of the many street cats we saw in Morocco.

Meknes is the gateway to the roman ruins of Volubilis, our next destination.

It's a very dry and dusty site with little or no protection from the elements but it is in a beautiful location.

It's also a very popular site with people free to climb on the ruins.

I was a little surprised by that.

Many beautiful mosaics have been uncovered but there are concerns the colour of the mosaics are fading due to sun exposure.

The main thoroughfare of Volubilis.

A black and white version.

The Arch of Caracalla

and some random Canadians I found lurking beneath the arch.

From Volubilis we drove on to Chefchaouen, the famous blue city. No-one is quite sure why the buildings are painted blue but one suggestion is it was done as a tourist attraction. If that's the reason, then it was a success.

We stayed in a funny old hotel, the Hotel Parador, that was originally built as the Spanish governor's house in the 1920s. It would have been quite glamorous in its day and I could imagine a swimsuit clad Sophia Loren lounging by the pool.

After we arrived I went for a walk around the town and discovered the only green mosque in the town. I was invited by a shop owner up to his terrace for a view over the city.

I had a quick look around before night fall knowing the next day I had a full morning to explore the town.

I came down for breakfast and I caught the hotel staff napping, literally, and found the breakfast room in darkness. The hotel was a bit Fawlty Towersesque.

I walked down the hill to the bottom of Chefchaouen to the market only to find it closed so then I made my way up the hill heading towards the Spanish Mosque.

The blue of the city was dazzling and in so many hues.

Even the meters were given a touch of blue.

Blue has always been my favourite colour.

Unfortunately I kept getting lost so I didn't make it to the Spanish Mosque.

I did find these cute construction workers, sleeping on the job.

The school run.

Not everything is painted blue.

When it was clear I wasn't going to make it to the Spanish Mosque, I walked down to the spring at Ras el-Ma where the communal laundry is located. I asked for permission to photograph the ladies and one lady agreed to my request.

Fruit is also washed in the spring, where these pomegranates were photographed. The path to the Spanish Mosque is directly across from the spring so I'd been heading in the wrong direction the whole time.

I visited Morocco during orange and pomegranate season and I enjoyed a freshly squeezed juice most days. What a pretty display across from the hotel.

I'll leave you with a final montage of ' the blues' of Chefchaouen.

I took more than 600 photos during my 2 weeks in Morocco, so I'll spread them over a couple of posts. I'll be back next week with Part II of my trip to Morocco.

See you all again soon.