Welcome to the Cookie Exchange Hop and the chance to win a totally AWESOME prize- 32 e-books AND a $160 Gift Card from your favourite romance authors!!!

Before you read on, I’d love you to sign up to my Sales and Special Offers newsletter. It only comes out when I have a real bargain for lovers of historical romance, exactly like the 5 new novella Regency Xmas anthology, LOVE REKINDLED AT CHRISTMAS, which you can get currently for only 99 cents.

N.B. I’m a Brit, so if I use the word “biscuit” rather than “cookie”, bear with me. I think the terms are interchangeable.

My recipe is for JUMBLES, a medieval sweet biscuit I used to make in my re-enactment days.

Be warned- don’t leave them in the oven too long, or people will be wearing them as jewellery. Believe me, the sight of us Elizabethan kitchen wenches with rock-hard biscuits around our necks was the cause of much hilarity.

You can get really creative with these biscuits, also known as KNOT BISCUITS, and make any number of different “knots”. The examples below are from Peter Brears’ book, FOOD AND COOKING IN 17^th CENTURY BRITAIN, as is the recipe.

The original recipe has been adapted to suit modern cooks.

Ingredients-

2 eggs

100g sugar

15 ml (1 tbs) ground aniseed

175g plain flour

A dash of rosewater (optional)

Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl. Then beat in the spice, followed by the flour, until you have a stiff dough.

The dough must be kneaded on a lightly floured board. It should be malleable enough for you to roll out 10cm lengths, each about 1cm in diameter. Form these rolls into simple knot shapes (unless you’re feeling adventurous and want to try some complex ones) and drop them, several at a time, into a pan of boiling water on the stove. They’ll sink to the bottom. Let them stay there a moment or two before gently dislodging them with a wooden spoon so they float to the surface. They should swell up a little.

You will need to remove the knots with a slotted spoon and dry them on a clean cloth on top of a wire rack. When they are reasonably dry, grease a baking sheet and bake the jumbles for about 15 minutes at 180℃/350℉. Remove them from the oven, flip them over and bake for a further 10 minutes or so until they are golden in colour.

Delicious!

Now, how do you get a chance to win that STUNNING prize? Here are the instructions-

After you have visited each site to collect the cookie recipes, e-mail the list of authors and their cookies to Heather@HeatherMcCollum.com with the subject line “Romance Authors Sure Can Bake” to be entered into the grand prize drawing. A winner will be selected randomly and announced Monday, 17 December by noon ET. Happy Holidays!

If you’re doing the cookie hop in order, your next stop is the Facebook page of the delightful and thoroughly lovely Tara Kingston.

GOOD LUCK!