That’s the concept behind these unusual yet delicious biscuits.
If you momentarily let your mind wander to Salty Caramel, you’ll appreciate salty vs sweet ingredients and how they ingeniously go together. The essence of these biscuits are just the same yet the salt and the sweet can come in whatever forms you choose. Better still, leftovers!
I’ve worked with Love Food Hate Waste over the past year, testing and photographing a range of recipes using everyday leftovers. This recipe in particular was a huge hit with my boys. Inspired by the Compost Cookie (using leftovers otherwise destined for the compost bin) over the Christmas break I put it into practice the flexibility of using a variety of weird and wonderful ‘bottom of the jar’ tidbits as ingredients.
- Salty: stale chips, broken pretzels, nuts…I chose left-over popcorn and salted cashews
- Sweet: M&Ms, dried fruit, broken chocolate pieces…I chose marshmallows and dark chocolate drops
- Any other variations: You decide. I swapped oats for home-made toasted granola that was looking lonely in the bottom of a jar; sugar for a combination ‘drips and drabs’ including caster, brown and coconut sugar; and any flavoured essence will do just fine.
It ain’t all that pretty. Correct. These won’t be the most amazing looking biscuits. They will taste fabulous however, do keep that in mind. They should be delicious and chewy on the inside too.
Best to get your family in behind this one. It will surprise them (the ingredient combinations sound bizarre and it will look a little unique too) but will be their new favourite, as it was in my household.
So I reckon, get creative, clean our your pantry and see what wonderful ingredients you have hidden away!
Sweet & Salty Cookies
Ingredients
- 125g butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 tsp essence
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup rolled oats (I used leftover homemade toasted granola)
- 1 1/2 cup ‘salty’ (see my note*)
- 1 cup ‘sweet’ (see my note**)
*I used 2 cups of popcorn and 1/2 cup salted cashews for my ‘salty’. This is more than the recipe calls for, however popcorn is light yet bulky and there was enough wet ingredients to bind it all together nicely.
**I used 1/2 cup of chocolate drop and 5 x stray marshmallows cut into small pieces. The marshmallows melt and as they bake they caramelise (therefore may ooze onto the baking tray) and cool toffee-like. As long as you don’t get precious of the ‘look’ it sure tastes great.
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C.
- Beat softened butter and sugar together until light and creamy.
- Add essence and egg and beat well until combined.
- Sift in flour, baking powder, add salt, oats and fold into the mix.
- Finally add your ‘salty’ and ‘sweet’ ingredients and mix well.
- Place heaped teaspoons (rolled into balls with your hands) onto lined baking trays. Press down lightly with a fork.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden. They will harden slightly during the cooling process.
